


A Change in Reality:  Volume Two

by IzzyIzz, jademoonfire



Series: A Change in Reality [3]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-08
Updated: 2013-05-20
Packaged: 2017-11-28 15:47:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 58,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/676122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IzzyIzz/pseuds/IzzyIzz, https://archiveofourown.org/users/jademoonfire/pseuds/jademoonfire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers end up back at Raina and Rachel’s world because of what they believe to be one of Tony’s experiments gone wrong, but once they realise where they are, they decide to pay Rain and Rachel a visit.  They don't expect any of the changes to come, either in this reality or their own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Raina!”  
  
“Gwen!”  Raina squealed, engulfing her tall friend in a hug. When they pulled apart, Raina looked around at Gwen, taking in her natural blonde hair, which was still light from her days on the beach, her round and bright green eyes, her still tanned skin and Gwen’s yoga instructor physique. Rain glanced around Gwen's feet. "Where are your bags?"  
  
"Oh, in the car."  Raina looked past Gwen to see an old, rusty and, quite frankly, beat up ‘69 Dodge Charger parked out next to the curb.  
  
“So, how’s Rachel?” Gwen asked timidly, observing Raina and noticing that her dark brown hair was now nearing waist length and that Raina was looking thinner than usual, though Gwen thought that she could have possibly gained more muscle.  Gwen looked into Raina’s deep storm cloud grey eyes, wondering if she should even broach the subject of Rachel.  
  
“Um, she’s okay, we kinda just don’t mention Jess and Dom.”  
  
“Oh, I’ll keep that in mind,” Gwen said, smiling back.  
  
“Well,” Raina said, clapping her hands together, “Your stuff isn’t going to get itself.” Raina yelled up the stairs, “Hey Rae, get your butt down here.  We need help getting Gwen’s stuff.”    
  
“Hold on!” They heard from upstairs, and then they saw Rachel at the top of the stairs.  
  
"Hey, Rae, how're you doing?" Gwen asked as Rachel descended the stairs seeing that Rachel’s black hair was almost as long as Rain’s, though it didn’t seem as kempt.  
  
"I'm okay," she said as she smiled brightly at Gwen, though Gwen could see fatigue behind Rachel’s dark blue eyes.  Gwen also thought that for someone who had a darker complexion, Rachel was looking fairly pale, as if she hadn’t been outside in a while.  Rachel engulfed Gwen in a hug, Gwen noticing that Rachel was thinner as well, though not in the same way as Rain.  Gwen thinking that Rachel’s weight loss seemed unintentional while Raina’s was most likely fitness related.  When they pulled apart, Rachel asked, "How was the drive?"  
  
"It was okay. The car didn't break down on me," Gwen said, laughing.  
  
"That's good,” Rachel looked down, “Where’s all your stuff?”    
  
“In the car, which is where we should go,” Raina said.    
  
Rachel and Gwen followed Raina outside to Gwen’s Charger, where Gwen unlocked the trunk and they carried all of Gwen’s belongings into the house and upstairs, where Gwen picked what had been Loki’s room to sleep in.  
  
“Are you sure it’s okay for me to sleep in here?”  Gwen asked, due to the strangled look on Raina’s face when she picked the room.  
  
“Yeah,” Rachel said, smiling, “It’s fine.”  
  
“Really?” she asked Rain.  Raina nodded after she got over the shock, it wasn’t that she didn’t want Gwen in the room, it was just that she didn’t want to think of it as anything but Loki’s room.  Gwen didn’t bother unpacking at the moment, so they all walked downstairs where Gwen found out that there had been a new room added behind the office and the bathroom on the ground floor was now a full bath.  
  
"Wow, you guys added stuff," Gwen stated.  
  
"Yeah, we wanted some more space," Rachel said.  
  
"What about the extra beds?"  
  
Rachel and Raina shifted uncomfortably, and, assuming it in some way had something to do with Jess and Dom, Gwen let the question drop.  Gwen ended up going back upstairs in the afternoon to unpack while Rachel and Raina wrote by occasionally yelling at one another.  
  
Eventually Gwen headed back downstairs, and seeing Rachel alone, sat down next to her and asked, “Is Raina okay? She clearly wasn’t okay with me taking that room.”    
  
Rachel sighed, “It’s a boy,” she said, telling Gwen only half the truth, “She thought he would stay with her forever, but he had to leave, for family reasons, and he hasn’t been in contact since.”  
  
“Oh,” Gwen said, “How long?”  
  
“He left a year and three months ago.”  
  
“Wow, that sucks.”  
  
“Yes, yes it does,” Rachel closed her laptop, “Are you hungry?”  
  
“A little, yeah.”  
  
“Rachel, I’m hungry,” Rain whined from the stairs.  
  
“So is Gwen, let’s go out to eat.”  
  
"Can we get drinks after? They’ll have a pumpkin spice now that it’s October."  
  
“Sure kid.”


	2. Chapter 2

There were two guards stationed within the weapons vault at all times; two more stood guard outside. Normally, their job was not very exciting. Today, however, that was going to change. Mere feet in front of the guards, a bright light shone. The guards raised their weapons at the light. Seconds later, the light receded, leaving a purple skinned man in golden armour; he was surrounded by several other purple skinned men dressed similarly.

"In the name of the All-Father, state your name and purpose!" One of the guards demanded. The mystery man smirked at him.

"I am Thanos and I've come for what's rightfully mine." The creature stated. Motioning to his men, Thanos spoke again, "Kill them." The other purple-skinned men charged forward at the guards, shouting their battle cries as they shot the Asgardians with their laser guns. Acting as quickly as they could, the guards raised their shields, but it was no match for the aliens. Their guns nearly shot through the shields.

The guards drew their weapons and struck at their attackers. A couple of them fell but were easily avenged as the others made quick work of the guards. "For Asgard!" Shouted the two guards that were outside the room; they had overheard the sounds of battle. Their fate was just the same.

"Pathetic Asgardians." Thanos spoke aloud as he walked over to one of the weapons within the weapons vault. It was a gauntlet that so interested the Titan. Thanos picked up the glove off of the stand and slid it onto his right hand. "The Infinity Gauntlet is mine once again!" Thanos shouted as he held up his newly gloved hand. The army of aliens shouted with him. Suddenly, bells rang out through the hallways. Thanos turned to see one of the previously thought dead guards pulling on a rope, his hand dropping to the floor as he let out one last breath.

"And that one is Aurvandil's toe." Loki told Raina as he pointed at the constellations in the night sky.

"Didn't Thor get stuck in the land of the giants and have to escape with that guy and then his toe froze?" Raina asked him as she attempted to recall the Norse myth. The two were lying next to each other on their backs gazing up at the sky from the empty field.

"And then Thor threw it into the sky where it became one of the stars." Loki concluded. "Unfortunately, the news made Aurvandil's wife, Groa, so happy that she forgot her magic and was unable to remove a stone, a piece of debri from one of Thor's previous fights, from his head. They say it still resides there." He chuckled; Raina laughed softly with him. After a few seconds they finally settled down and became silent. "I've missed you, my dear Rain." Loki finally said.

"I missed you too Loki. Too bad this isn't real." She spoke. Had he heard right? This was real, wasn't it?

"What are you talking about Rain, of course this is real. You decided to come back to Asgard with me, remember?" Loki raised himself up on his arms and looked over to Raina as she followed suit.

"You're dreaming love." She spoke as she placed a hand on his cheek. "And it's time to wake up Loki, wake up."

"Loki! Wake up brother! I have grave news!" Thor's voice boomed from outside his bedroom. Loki rose from the bed, flinging the sheets away from him. It seemed as if every night since he'd returned to Asgard that Loki would dream of her. His Raina.

"What could be so important as to awake me at this hour Thor!?" Loki yelled back at him as he threw on a robe on his way to answering the door.

"Thanos has broken into the weapons vault and has stolen the Infinity Gauntlet as well as the Tesseract!" Thor bellowed out as soon as Loki opened his door.

"What!?" Loki exclaimed as he took a few steps back out of shock.

"Father has ordered I lead a party to track him. He has also stationed a few extra guards to stand at the entrance to your quarters." Thor explained to him.

Loki groaned in frustration, "I do not need guards, brother! I can easily take care of myself. Or is this because I might escape?" Secretly, he was thankful for the extra protection; without his full powers Loki would not stand a chance if Thanos were to come after him because of the deal he broke.

"It is merely as a precaution Loki." Thor assured him. Loki scoffed.

"Just leave me be then Thor, go on your hunt." Loki waved him away. Thor did not say anymore as he turned and left. After over a year, Odin had yet to return his full power though the guards had been taken away after the first couple of months; Loki was not pleased. Subconsciously, Loki began to softly trace his slightly scarred lips as he was bitterly reminded of the other part of his punishment; Odin had sown his mouth shut.

Letting out a sigh, Loki went and bathed. Once he had dressed, Loki went back to his daily routine of going through his many spell books for a teleportation spell back to Raina. It was a few hours later when he felt it. Someone on Asgard had used a very powerful spell. A spell in which not one single person, not even the All-Father, could do by himself; more than one person was needed. Spells such as that tend to leave magical traces that would catch onto the wind and travel about. Loki felt that extra magic float into his room. He embraced it, taking it into his body for his own.

"This familiarity," He muttered to himself, "I've felt this before, but where?" Loki shook his head of the thought, "It matters not, this is what I needed!" He became excited; this was just the amount of magic he needed to use one of the teleportation spells that he had found. As he muttered the spell, words from an ancient language, a light began to envelop him. Loki found himself being pulled through the fabric of reality itself as he thought of Raina, her face coming into his mind. Nothing would be able to separate her from him ever again.


	3. Chapter 3

Tony was excited. Today was the day that he could finally finish his project.  Bruce was helping him get the finishing touches done, and keeping calm for the both of them.  Tony was working on a short term teleport; a simple one that would, hopefully, take an apple from one spot in his lab to another one ten feet away.  
  
“Bruce, the wrench-”  
  
“Hey Tony,” Clint said.  Tony frowned and looked up to see Clint, Natasha and Steve walking through the doors of his lab.  
  
“Hey guys, come to watch history take place?” Tony asked, smirking as he did.  
  
“No,” Natasha started, “Fury has sent us here to collect you two.”  
  
“Why all of you?” Bruce asked.  Natasha only moved her head in the direction of the window.  Outside they could see a helicopter flying towards Stark Tower.  Tony sighed, “Can’t it wait until I finish here?”  
  
“Tony, if Director Fury says he needs us then we should probably-”  
  
“Be good little soldiers and do as we’re told?”  Steve scowled at Tony.  
  
“But can it wait?”  Tony asked Natasha seriously, “I mean we have two more things to do, then we’ll be done and can test it.”  
  
Clint looked over to Natasha, who touched her earpiece and said something in Russian and once receiving orders, looked over at Tony and nodded, “You’ve got thirty minutes.”  
  
“It’ll take less than ten,” Tony said, beaming and clapping his hands together, looking like a child about to dig into his candy bag after a good Halloween haul.  
  
“Okay, Bruce, the wrench?”  Bruce quickly found it and placed it in Tony’s hand, then went back to checking the calibrations for the umpteenth time.  Tony tightened a nut and set the wrench down.  He waited patiently for Bruce to finish, and watched at Bruce loosened a different nut.  When Bruce looked up at Tony, his eyes were bright with all the scientific possibilities that they could potentially have, were this to work correctly.  Tony returned Bruce’s smile, seemingly forgetting everyone else in the room.  Tony handed Bruce the apple that they were going to attempt to transport.  Bruce sat it on its designated spot and walked back to stand next to Tony.  
  
“Lady and gentlemen, if you would please stand behind the line so that, were there were to be any catastrophes, you would be out of harm’s way,” Tony said to Steve, Clint and Natasha.  They obliged and moved to stand where Bruce and Tony were, making sure they were behind the red line that Tony had mentioned. Bruce handed them all protective goggles to wear, telling them that there was going to be a blinding white light.  They all put on their goggles and, once Bruce and Tony had theirs on, Bruce looked at Tony and asked, “Ready?”  
  
“Let’s do this,” Tony said as he pulled the lever slowly.  All eyes went to the apple as the machine powered up, the white light was already blinding, even behind the protective lenses of the goggles.  Bruce looked at Tony, they had been working on this project for nearly a year and the light had never been this bright this early on.  
  
“I think we need to shut it down,” Bruce said.  Tony frowned, but agreed and started to push the lever in the opposite direction, but it didn’t stop the light from glowing brighter.  Once it was completely off, however, the light suddenly grew in intensity and flashed towards them before any of them could move.  
  
They all felt the familiar sensation of being pulled and they found themselves standing on a street corner on the outskirts of the city.  Natasha, Steve and Clint all turned towards Bruce and Tony.  
  
“Well it looks like your experiment worked,” Clint said sarcastically.  
  
“No it didn’t,” Bruce answered, “The teleporter wasn’t even on when we were transported.”  
  
“Then how were we transported?” Natasha asked with sarcasm to match Clint’s  
  
“Wait, it wasn’t on?” Steve asked Bruce.  
  
“No, I watched Tony turn it off.”  
  
“Yeah, it was too much light.”    
  
When the other three looked at him in confusion, Tony explained, “In all of our test runs, it’s never given off that much light, even at full capacity, and I had it completely turned off when the light got out of control.”  
  
“It might have just picked today to go haywire,” Natasha said, dismissing them and turning to walk back in the direction of Stark Tower, effectively ending the conversation. They all started walking with Natasha until Tony said, “Wait, isn’t S.H.I.E.L.D. waiting for us, why don’t we just call them to pick us up?”  
  
They all looked at Tony, “That’s actually a good and non-sarcastic idea,” Natasha said approvingly.  She put her hand to her ear, but when she hit the button on her comm, she heard only static.  Natasha looked over to Clint, “We must be out of range,” but she knew that something major would have to happen to make them lose contact.  
  
“Good ol’ S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Tony said sarcastically, then spoke into his comm, “JARVIS, patch me into S.H.I.E.L.D.”  He heard only static.  Tony looked at them, his heart beating rapidly.  There had only been one time that he hadn’t been able to reach Jarvis.  He couldn’t deny that if what he thought had happened was true, he would be pleased, but that would also most likely mean that someone else had brought them all here.  
  
“Guys, I can’t reach anyone on my phone,” Bruce said, “it’s not working.”    
  
Tony looked at Bruce, “The Other Guy isn’t there, is he?”  Bruce paused for a second, and seemingly searched inside; he looked over to Tony and asked, “How did you know?”  
  
“Wait, that’s only happened once before,” Steve said, his feelings clearly being guarded as he spoke.  
  
“Exactly,” Tony said, smiling.  
  
“So that means,” Clint started.  
  
“It would seem so,” Tony interrupted.  
  
“But what are we supposed to do Tony,” Natasha asked, not pleased about their circumstances.  
  
“I’d say find out which reality we’re in and then act accordingly.”  
  
“How are we supposed to do that?” Clint asked.  
  
“We get someone, Bruce or Clint to go up to someone else and ask if they’ve heard of The Avengers movie.” Steve stated, rather matter-of-factly.  
  
“Why can’t you do it _Captain_?” Natasha asked.  
  
“No, it makes sense Tasha,” Clint said before Steve could respond, “Rachel and Raina only let us go out last time, so it makes sense for one of us to do it this time.”  Steve sent a grateful smile towards Clint, though they hadn’t had many missions together, everyone except Natasha seemed willing to follow Steve’s orders since the reality debacle.  
  
Once they had ascertained that they _were_ in another reality, they decided, against Natasha’s wishes, that they would attempt to find Raina and Rachel.  
  
“Why are you so against going to find them?” Bruce asked as they walked towards the city.  Natasha sighed heavily and stopped walking, “Because we don’t know if they are still living in the same place as last time, if things have changed  and most importantly, we don’t know if they want to see us.”  
  
“Well, it’s not like we could’ve called ahead,” Tony said, defending their position.  
  
“I know, but it’s been over a year, and we all know that a lot can happen in that time, and we just don’t know how they’ll take this.”  In all honesty, Natasha was worried that Rachel might have found someone else and that Raina would be devastated when they showed up without Loki and, as Natasha genuinely considered Rachel and Rain friends, she didn’t want to do that to them.  
  
“We don’t have any other options Tasha,” Clint said soothingly to her.  
  
“I know,” she said.  With that, they all continued walking; hoping that they could find the girls.  



	4. Chapter 4

Loki frowned for a second, his landing hadn't been as smooth as he imagined. He picked himself up off the ground and tried to orientate himself. He looked for a familiar landmark. Not finding any, Loki began to walk towards all the lights. He was mostly sure he could find Raina. He wandered around for a few hours before he found the spot that he and the Avengers had been teleported to the first time. He walked in the direction that he thought that Raina and Rachel lived in, but a couple of more hours later, he realised that he had no idea where he was.

Loki sighed, getting more frustrated as time ticked away, Loki felt hyper-aware of the fact that he was losing precious time with Raina. He wandered around a little more, trying to orientate himself once again. Loki knew his options were limited, he could not get in contact with Raina, or Rachel, he could not ask anyone where they lived, he had no idea what the street name was, all Loki had to go on was a year old memory of the place that Raina and Rachel resided. He turned the corner and walked on; he knew if he walked down every street, he would eventually find her.

Loki had realised that because the seasons were different, the landscape must have changed, which he assumed was causing his delay. Only the thought of seeing Rain again kept him walking long after his feet got blisters, causing him to curse his mortal form. He knew he was starting to get out of the city and more into a suburban area, which gave him a little more hope, seeing as that was where Raina and Rachel lived.

On a sudden burst of intuition, Loki decided to turn down a different street. He looked down it. One house on the right, one on the left and a third one, also technically on the left side, but further away. Loki's mortal heart started beating frantically. This had to be their house, though there was an unfamiliarvehicle parked outside. He started running; in fact, he was sure that he couldn't walk towards that house if his life depended on it.

Loki quickly made his way his way up the stairs of the front porch and knocked loudly and clearly. Only after he knocked did he start to consider that he probably should have tried to figure out whether or not Raina was in there. The door opened to reveal a tanned woman with bright green eyes and blonde hair. Loki could tell that she was older than Raina and Rachel, so he didn't think that she could be related to either of them, plus he knew that they were both the older siblings. She surveyed Loki with some confusion, but asked, "Can I help you?"

Loki cleared his throat and asked, "Does Rain live here?"

"Who's asking?"

Here Loki paused once again, not knowing how to answer, "Does she live here? I'm an old friend and I'm afraid that we've been out of contact for some time, and as fate would have it, I found myself in the neighborhood and I thought I'd try to find her."

"Nice try buddy," Gwen said, thinking that the man, however handsome he may be, was just some lunatic trying to kill her friend.

"Gwen?" Loki heard Rachel ask, "Who's at the door?"

"No one," Gwen said, trying to close the door. Loki had come too far to, literally, have a door shut in his face. He grasped the door with his hand, stopping it from closing.

"Doesn't look like no one." He heard Rachel say mildly, the door was pulled back and the warm glow of the hall light hit Loki's face.

"Rachel." He said; hope shining completely in his eyes. Though he couldn't see her well, Loki could see her eyes widen, "Loki?"

He smiled and nodded, "May I enter?" Rachel shook her head, as if clearing it, "Y-yeah, sure, come on in." Rachel opened the door further and moved to the side.

"What do you mean Loki? How can his name be Loki?"

"His parents were mythology freaks, kinda like Rain is." Rachel said, lying quickly and easily.

"Oh," Gwen said, "Sorry dude." She said as she shut the door behind them.

"Where is Rain?" Loki asked. Finally being able to view her in the bright light of the living room, Loki could tell that something was resting uneasily in Rachel's mind, which made Loki wonder about what was going on with her, and more importantly, what might be going on with Raina. Rachel was concerned about how Raina was going to react to Loki's sudden appearance, she knew Rain was going to be happy, but she was unsure of any other emotions that might come forward.

"She's uh, she's not here. Actually," Rachel said, "I don't know where she is."

"Why not?" Loki said accusatory.

"Because I'm not her mother."

Loki, feeling that he had pieced together everything, said, "So you've just cast her out and replaced her with this one?" Gwen was taken aback by the bluntness of what he had just said, but became shocked by Rachel's lively response, in all the time that she had been staying with Rachel and Raina, Rachel had been unusually docile. She saw Rachel raise her left eyebrow, which made Gwen take a step back.

"Listen Loki you don't get to judge me or my actions, especially considering what you did to your brother and the city of New York last year," Rachel said, walking up to him and reminding him of who she was and the fact that she wasn't afraid of him.

"Ah, but I've never betrayed a friend. That, my dear, is the worst crime of them all." By this point, Gwen was completely confused as to what they were actually talking about.

"Oh and you'd know all about the worst crimes, wouldn't you?" Rachel said, her voice rising, and masking the sound of the door opening and being closed once again. "I can't believe that I was excited that you were here. You're always such an ass."

"Who are you yelling at Rae?" Loki heard Raina ask. His eyes widened and a look of confusion swept across his face. "But you said-"

"No," Rachel interjected, "You assumed." Rachel then addressed Raina, "Oh just an old friend, why don't you come say hi."

"What old friends do we have that you like to yell at?" Raina asked as she walked to the threshold of the room. Loki turned to face her and Rachel took Gwen's arm and pulled her out of the way. Raina had turned pale, she looked at Loki and then at Rachel, as if trying to see through the apparition that she thought was there.

"Is he real?" Raina asked, looking at Rachel for confirmation. Loki looked at Rachel also, truly believing that Raina wouldn't accept his existence unless Rachel said it was true.

"Either that or we're all having the same hallucination kid," Rachel said, beaming at her friend.

Raina looked back at Loki and smiled. He let out a sigh and said, "I am truly sorry that it took me this long to get back to you, I-" Loki was cut off by a scream from Raina, which alarmed him, but apparently amused Rachel. Raina then ran forward and jumped into an embrace with him. She had wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

"I can't believe you're here!" She squealed.

"We'll never be separated again. I promise, love." Rachel pulled Gwen out of the room and into the kitchen, mumbling something about tea, but really just wanting to give Loki and Raina some time alone.

Raina released the grip her legs had around Loki's waist and placed them back on the floor. Tightening her grip her arms had around his neck, Raina went in for a kiss. Loki responded immediately by placing his hands on her waist and pulling her closer to him. Their kissing intensified as Raina entangled her fingers in his hair, her grip tight. They were suddenly interrupted by a rising voice coming from the kitchen.

"Sounds like Gwen's freaking out." Raina spoke softly as she breathed in, panting slightly. "I should probably go help Rae calm her down."

As soon as they were in the next room, Gwen asked, "Who is that guy, really?"

"As you know, his name is Loki and, well, you know that movie Rain and I love so much, The Avengers?" Rachel began to explain to Gwen.

"Yeah, I've seen it." Gwen answered, becoming even more confused.

"Basically, last year they were teleported into our world and stayed at our house for about a month." Rachel told the woman quickly.

"Wait, that's...that's not possible." Gwen was visibly upset by what Rae had just said.

"That man in there is really Loki, the god Loki, from the movie." Gwen was visibly shaking now.

"That's not possible!" She yelled. By now both Raina and Loki had joined the two girls in the kitchen; Gwen glancing quickly over at Loki, then Raina, and back to Rachel. "Stuff like that only happened whenever I used to get high but even at that I knew they were hallucinations!"

"Gwen, take a deep, breathe." Raina told her, Gwen took a breath. "Now breathe out." Gwen let out her air and sighed.

"Better?" Rachel asked her.

"Yeah." Gwen answered calmly.

"Cool beans," Raina cheered, "now if you'll excuse us Loki and me have catching up to do." She interlocked her fingers with his and pulled him out of the room and upstairs to her bedroom.

Rachel looked over at Gwen after Raina and Loki left, "How are you doing?" Gwen sighed and met Rachel's eyes, "Honestly? I'm struggling with the idea of calling someone to have the three of you committed. You do realize how insane that sounds, right?"

"Yeah," Rachel said, smiling, glad that Gwen was calming down, "But you remember that time you tried to come visit and instead I came out to meet you in the city before I went and visited-" Rachel stopped suddenly, the feeling of guilt washed over her as she started thinking about one of the few times that she had been able to visit her siblings before they had died.

"Yeah," Gwen interjected, jarring Rachel out of her thoughts.

"Well, that's when they were all here. We didn't want to let anyone over here because we knew it would cause too much trouble."

"They why wouldn't you just lie to me now? You could've just kept the secret."

Rachel sighed, "I'm pretty sure Loki plans on staying here, and since you are too, we might as well have honesty between us. We are friends."

Gwen smiled and nodded, "This is still insane," she said, "Wait, is that why you have the extra beds?"

Rachel smiled sheepishly, "Yeah, Rain bought them when The Avengers were here last time. We just couldn't bear to part with them."

Gwen nodded, "Oh, okay, that's...uh, something."

"I know it's a lot to take in, but I mean, it's the truth."

"It's still crazy," Gwen said, smiling to show Rachel that she was okay, while resolving not to think about it anymore.


	5. Chapter 5

Loki followed Raina upstairs to her room where he locked, and shut, the door behind them.  
  
“Rain I-” Loki began to say as he turned to face her. He did not get a chance to finish as Raina immediately pulled him in for a kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck. Loki snaked his arms around her waist in return and pulled her against him. Their kiss heated up and deepened as Raina began to move them back towards the bed. Loki turned them around; pulling Raina on top of him as he fell onto the bed with Raina straddling him. After a few moments more they pulled away from each other, breathing heavily. Raina placed her forehead onto his.  
  
“I missed you Loki, truly and deeply, more than anything.” Raina whispered to him as she locked eyes with his, her hands on his chest gripping his armour. Loki placed a hand on Raina's cheek, rubbing it lightly with his thumb.  
  
“I swore I would return to you Rain, and I have kept my promise. We will never be separated again.” Raina smiled but quickly dismissed it. With being close to Loki's face she could now see something that upset her and slightly infuriated her. There were small, round scar marks along his upper and lower lips. Immediately, she knew what caused them. It was part of mythology, listed as one of Loki's punishments; his mouth had been sewn shut.  
  
“Loki....” Raina started but found she could not finish as she traced his lips with her fingers. Loki winced and quickly grabbed at her wrist. “Sorry..I-I should've been there. I could've lessened your sentence or, or something!”  
  
“Rain it is all right now. I've nearly completely healed. Besides, I've done bad, terrible things, I didn't expect Odin to be lenient on me adopted son or not.”  
  
“Just...I know I'm sadistic and everything but, I don't like to see you get hurt. Especially since you've been hurt so much before.”  
  
“That is why I have you my lovely Rain; you make everything so much better.” Loki spoke as he gave her a mischievous smirk.  
  
“Well in that case...” Raina captured his lips with hers yet again.  
  
+~*~+  
  
Later into the night, Raina found herself in need of a glass of water, so she walked downstairs.  As she walked towards the kitchen, she realised that the light was on. Raina walked into the kitchen and saw Rachel sitting in her favorite spot at the table.  
  
“What’cha doing?”  
  
“Oh I’m just editing that story we’re writing.”  
  
Raina nodded and said, “You know we have editors who will _edit_ for us.”  
  
“Yeah but they mainly take stuff out, I’m trying to create more continuity and add a little more character development. Editors don’t do that.”  Raina smiled and sat down at the table.  
  
“True dat,” Raina joked.  
  
“Are you happier now?” Rachel asked quietly.    
  
Raina looked up at Rachel, “So much so.”  
  
“Good,” Rachel said, smiling.  
  
“I gotta get some water,” Raina explained as she stood up, “all that yelling when I realised that Loki was actually here has my throat sore.”  Rachel chuckled as Raina got herself a glass of water.  
  
“How did he get back?”  Rachel asked  
  
“He said that there was extra magic in the air and it was just enough for him to perform his spell and get back here.”    
  
Rachel nodded, “That makes sense.”  
  
“Are you going to be okay?”  Rachel’s eyebrows furrowed, “Yeah, why do you ask?”  
  
“I’m not trying to upset you or anything,” Raina started, “But if Steve came back and Loki didn’t, I’d be devastated.  And let’s not forget that you’ve recently lost almost all of your family.”    
  
Rachel swallowed hard.  “For some reason I just can’t focus on that.  We’ve got Loki, and I do consider him a friend.  He makes you happy, so I’m going to be happy for you.”  Rachel assumed that Raina knew that she was lying when it came to not focusing on the fact that Steve wasn’t there, but Rachel hoped that they could both pretend that she meant it.  
  
“Rachel,” Raina started, but stopped when Rae held up her hand.  
  
“Listen, there are a lot of things that have happened that aren’t okay, but if everyone else didn’t come back, that means that they’re okay and I’d rather focus on that,” She said, speaking the truth this time.  
  
“Okay, well, I’m gonna go back to bed,” Raina said, realising that there wasn’t really anything she could do for her friend.  
  
“Alright kid, I’m probably not going to stay up too much longer.”  
  
“Okay, night Rae.”  Raina said as she left the room with her glass of water.  
  
“Night.”    
  
Rachel continued working late into the night, going to bed around four in the morning and feeling hopeless.

 


	6. Chapter 6

"We've been walking forever," Tony exclaimed.

"Suck it up Stark, we've got to find them," Natasha snapped.

"Okay, wait," Steve said, "Let's think about this. If we go back to the place we were when we were transported here the first time and then try and find it, then it'll be easier to try and find them."

"Oh because that's going to be easy," Clint said. Steve rolled his eyes, "It will," he said assuredly, "Once we get some rest. Tony's right; we've been walking all day and most of the night. We need to get some rest."

"And where are we going to go to get rest?" Natasha asked.

Steve looked around, "Maybe we could-"

"Whatever you're going to say, I've got a better idea," Clint said.

"And what is it?"

"We use Natasha to get us a room and then we sneak out of it before they figure out we've given them what they believe is a fake credit card." Steve looked scandalized by the idea. "No, we can't do that."

"What other choice do we have?" Bruce asked, "I mean, we can always pay them back later." Steve frowned, but wouldn't agree to it.

"Look Steve, I know it's not ideal, but we don't have any other options. We'll pay them back."

"Maybe we won't have to," Natasha said as she confidently walked over to a nearby car.

"What's she doing?"

"Getting us money," Clint answered simply, "Speaking of, everyone needs to empty their pockets for cash. We're going to combine it together to get a room

"How is she getting us money?" Steve asked while taking out his wallet.

"Do you really want to know?" Clint asked, though he knew that the Captain could guess what she was up to.

Natasha was offering sexual favours and then taking the men into an alley, knocking them unconscious and taking all of their cash. Once they had gathered what they hoped was enough money to get a room, they sent Natasha over to the nearest motel, to buy a single room while the boys waited off to the side, ready to go in, just in case something went wrong.

Natasha easily procured a room for them, even getting a reduced rate, which meant that they might even get breakfast the next day. She snuck them in through the back of the motel where they all settled in quickly, though not without quarrels as to who got the beds, and went to sleep.

When they woke up, it was around ten in the morning, so they all got up and straightened out their clothes before sneaking out of the room. Natasha went out the front way, just to keep up pretenses and met with the boys the next block over.

"Okay, let's try to find Rachel and Raina," Tony said, still sounding rather tired, though he was one of the ones with a bed.

"Let's get breakfast first," Natasha said.

"How are we going to do that?" Clint asked.

"We still have some cash left over."

Tony's eyes lit up, "I agree; doughnuts sound nice."

Bruce went into a nearby bakery and got them all their requested pastries. They decided that it would probably be too much of a risk to sit inside of a public venue together, so they went to what looked like an abandoned park and ate. They sat in silence for a while.

"Should we just wait until dark to start moving again?" Clint asked.

"I don't think so," Natasha answered, "But I think it would be in our best interest to wait until five or six."

"What if we're just being paranoid though?"

"Let's just call it being extra precautious Bruce," Tony answered, "We just don't know if someone will recognize us and we don't know what will happen."

They ended up waiting until three in the afternoon. They walked to the place where they had been transported to more than a year earlier and then, with much arguing, decided which way to go. The group walked around New York for hours and got lost numerous times.

"We don't know where we're going," Clint stated, "We're never going to find this place."

"No," Natasha countered, "We've got to be getting close. We're out of the City and closer to water. We just need to find a place with some wooded areas."

Bruce sighed, though he hadn't outright complained, he was getting tired and needed to rest soon. He had been walking all day, and now it was well into the night, and being autumn, it was already fairly cold, even for New York. They rounded a corner and Tony said, "This street looks exactly like the last one. And the one before that!"

"You need to calm down," Natasha said patronizingly.

"Are you going to make me?" Tony challenged.

"Tony," Clint started, exasperatedly, "Can you just give it a rest?"

"Yeah," Bruce said, "Natasha's actually being cooperative right now. You should be too."

"What do you mean?"

Steve sighed, knowing that he had to find some way to get them all back on the same page. He turned his head down the street. Tony was right; the street did look familiar, but not the way that Tony was describing. There were only three houses on this street and Steve didn't know of any other place that had only three houses on a street. Though he couldn't see exactly what the house looked like, and not from the distance that he was at, he was willing to bet a lot on the fact that it had to be Rachel and Raina's house.

"Guys," Steve started, only to be drowned out by their bickering. He rolled his eyes.

"Guys," He said louder.

"What?" They all turned and yelled at him at the same time.

"Tony's right."

"Of course I am, but can you be a little more specific Captain?" Steve took the time to roll his eyes at Tony before continuing, "This street is familiar. It's only got three houses. Two on the left and one unoccupied on the right." Everyone's heads snapped away from Steve to observe the street. Steve smiled as the hope reignited in their eyes, but frowned as they all took off down the street.

"Wait!" He called, running after them. They only stopped when they reached the pathway to the house.

"It looks different," Clint said, suddenly worried and eyeing the car.

"We can't all go running up there," Steve said, "We don't even know if they still live here."

At his words, Natasha breathed a silent sigh of relief, she realized that he was not as naive as she had assumed.

"Okay, so who goes?"

"I will," Bruce answered Tony.

They all took a deep breath and nodded at him. Bruce walked up to the door, praying to any god that might exist that this was Rachel and Raina's house and that they still lived here. He knocked clearly three times. While he waited for the door to be answered, he looked at his watch. It was almost ten at night. When the door opened, he saw a tanned blonde with green eyes and though Bruce's first thought was that she was beautiful, he was concerned with the fact that she was unfamiliar to him. She did not looked amused with the fact that she had someone at her door this late at night.

"Hi, is Rachel home?"

"Seriously?" She asked incredulously, "How many of you are there? And where do you keep coming from?"

Bruce blinked, "Uh, I'm not entirely sure what you mean-"

Bruce was interrupted by what he identified as Rachel's voice, "Who's at the door? Wait, I'm getting deja vu, are you?"

The woman laughed and nodded, "He's asking for you this time." Her statement only made Bruce more confused, 'Who else could have been here? Thor?' The door opened to reveal Rachel, who had, Bruce noticed, let her hair grow out. He smiled when he saw her.

"I knew it!" She screamed as she stepped forward and hugged him. He pulled her closer to him and with all the memories flooding back, he forgot everyone else and said, "I missed you so much."

When they pulled apart, Rachel was beaming up at him, "I missed you too! I'm so happy you're here. Loki and Rain are already becoming a little smug."

"Loki's here?" Tony asked, the rest of the Avengers had come onto the porch while Bruce and Rachel had been hugging.

"Tony!" She said, as if suddenly noticing him. She hugged him as well, and when they parted, she answered him, "Yeah he came last night. But you obviously didn't know that." Rachel then proceeded to hug Clint, Natasha and Steve.

"It's kinda chilly, let's go inside," She said, still beaming at all of them. Rachel ushered all of them into the house, smiling at Steve, who went in last. He smiled back and stumbled backwards as Rae practically jumped into his arms once she shut the door.

Steve was concerned with the fact that as he wrapped his arms around Rachel, he could feel bones that he couldn't a year ago.

"What's wrong Rae?" He whispered into her ear.

"I just missed you so much," Rachel said, her voice quivering as she buried her head into his neck. She was still holding onto Steve closely, as if afraid that if she let go, he would disappear again.

Steve slightly tightened his grip on Rae, "I missed you too Rachel."

Rachel pulled away and, smiling up at Steve, said, "Come on, they'll wonder where we are." Steve nodded and held onto Rachel's hand as she led him into the living room.

The Avengers had decided to make themselves scarce so as to give Rachel and Steve a moment, and once they had all assembled on the couch and one of the love seats, they all let themselves have a moment for the nostalgia of being back here, even if Thor wasn't with them. When Rachel and Steve came in, they all, including Gwen, pretended not to notice that the pair had been gone.

"How did Loki get here?" Clint asked.

"Uh," Rachel started, "He said that he used extra magic in the air to do a spell to get here."

"Oh, okay."

"Speaking of, where are Loki and Raina?"

"Upstairs," Gwen, who had been forgotten by everyone, answered.

"How are you doing Gwen? You okay?" Rachel asked, remembering the night before.

"Uh, I think I'm okay," Gwen was normally a calm and collected person, but with the nightly appearance of comic book characters, Rachel wasn't sure how she was going to react.

"Good," Rachel said, then yelled towards the ceiling, "Hey Rain, get down here, I have a present for you!"

Gwen looked at Rachel with confusion evident in her eyes. "It's them," Rachel clarified.

"Yeah I got that much, why are they presents?"

"I just said that so she'd come down," Rachel said, "Oh and guys this is Gwen and Gwen, this is-" Rachel was cut off by stomping on the stairs.

"This better be a good present Rae, I was busy."

"Oh just come into the living room."

"Why is everything in the living room? Why can't we have presents in the entertainment room?" Raina asked as she and Loki emerged from the entertainment room. She looked in the living room and saw Gwen sitting next to Bruce on the loveseat, Natasha, Clint and Tony on the couch and Steve sitting on the only chair in the room with Rachel seated on the arm of it. She blinked for a second, then screamed.

"You guys! How did you guys get here?"

"That is an excellent question," Rachel commented.

"That's why you didn't think of it," Raina shot back. Rachel rolled her eyes while Natasha said, "Tony."

"I didn't do it, and Bruce was part of the project too." Rachel and Raina started laughing.

"What?"

"You guys," The girls answered Tony simultaneously.

"I forgot how creepy it is when you two talk in unison."

"Thanks Tony." The girls said.

Raina smiled and bounced a little bit, "I want hugs!" She said as she practically tackled Bruce, who got knocked into Gwen with the force of Raina's hug.

"Geez Rain, don't kill them!" scolded Rachel with a smile. Raina just laughed and continued to make her way around the room hugging everyone. Once she was done, she stood in the middle of the room, beaming at all of them, "Where's Thor?"

"He was in Asgard when we got thrown back here," Clint explained.

"Oh, okay. Well, it's almost everybody"

"So Loki," Natasha started, "How exactly did you-" She got cut off by Gwen yelling, "I can't handle this!"

"First you tell me that he's really Loki and now you have the rest of the Avengers here!?"

"Minus Thor," Raina added matter-of-factly, which earned her a stern look from Rachel.

"Not helping Rain. In fairness, we told you all this yesterday."

"And you just expect me to accept it?" Gwen asked, her voice taking on a hysterical edge. Luckily the Avengers had stayed silent.

"Yes, I mean, they are sitting right in front of you. You're sitting next to Bruce Banner. You can't deny the evidence of your own eyes."

"You can if you've ever had hallucinations," Gwen shot back, causing Bruce to chuckle. She glared at Bruce before turning her attention back o Rae.

"And how did you guys react?"

"We were pretty chill about it," Raina answered. They watched as Gwen's face turned red with embarrassment and anger.

"Oh well I'm sorry that I can't be as chill as you two. Can't you see how weird this is?" Gwen looked at everyone and after receiving only blank stares, said, "They aren't real and now you just expect me to believe that they are in another dimension?"

"Yeah, we are. And it's not like it's that big of a stretch. Science says that there could be parallel universes and whatnot."

"What if they're insane? And they escaped from an insane asylum?" Everyone just stared at Gwen.

"Twice?" Rachel countered, "And we saw them leave. It wasn't in a white van."

"More like floating away in a cloud of magic," Raina said, smiling to herself. Everyone looked at Raina with faces ranging from bemused to concerned.

"Were you even paying attention when we left?" Clint asked.

"Not really, I was blinded by the tears that were pouring from my eyes," she answered honestly, causing Loki and Clint to cringe. Loki stepped forward to tell her that she would never cry again because of him when he got interrupted by Rachel's giggling. When they all looked at her, Rachel explained, "That was probably the most poetic thing that Raina's ever said."

"Gee, thanks Rae."

"No problem," Rachel said, and then turned back to Gwen, "Gwen, you're a calm person. Use the calm within you to dispel this hysteria that you are feeling now."

"Who do you think you are, Yoda?"

"I was going more for Obi-Wan," Rachel explained to Gwen, who, for the moment at least, had calmed down.

"Do you need to step out of the room? Do you want me to come with you?" Rachel offered.

"No, I'm just going to sit here and pretend this doesn't bother me."

"If it makes you feel better, we weren't that calm when we first got here," Tony said.

"That's very true," Raina said laughing, "Tony almost died when he first got here. He kept pissing Rae off."

"So," Rachel interjected "How did you all get here?"

"That's a long story," Bruce answered, "But basically something, and that something is still under debate, but something transported us here, and then we got lost and had to spend the night in a motel, which was disgusti-"

"How did you pay for it?" Rachel asked with curiosity, "Don't tell me that your credit cards work here."

"Uh, not exactly, no," Natasha said, "We used some slightly unsavory methods to get some quick cash."

Rachel understood that Natasha probably didn't want to talk about it, but Raina had no such understanding of tact, so she asked, "What kinds of unsavory methods?"

"Let's just say we asked some criminals for money and if they said no, we would still take it," Clint said.

"But-"

"Rain, shut up," Rachel said, slightly exasperated.

"You don't have to be so mean."

"How did you get here Loki?"

Loki explained to Natasha and everyone else how he had found extra magic floating in the air and used it to complete his spell, which took him here. He also admitted that it took him awhile to find the girls again. By this time, Raina had moved to the other loveseat and plopped down; Loki joined her when he finished speaking.

At this point, Bruce's stomach rumbled with hunger which caused Rachel to ask, "When was the last time that you guys ate?"

"This morning." Rachel's eyes widened, "We need to fix that," she said, smiling and standing up.

"I'll help," Steve said, also standing.

Rachel smiled and nodded as she walked into the kitchen, Steve trailing behind. She walked to the fridge to look for something to make. When she didn't see anything, she sighed and shut the door before turning to Steve, "Is there anything in particular that you-"

Rachel was cut off by Steve suddenly eliminating the distance between them, tilting her head up and kissing her softly. When he pulled away he said, "I really missed you."

Rae put her hand on top of Steve's, which was on her cheek, and nodded, silently telling him that she understood what he was really saying, "I missed you too Steve, more than I've ever missed anyone."

Steve smiled and leaned down, pressing his lips firmly against hers.

"Hey so what are you- Seriously?" Rachel pulled away from Steve and looked over to Tony, giggling, "I was thinking macaroni and cheese," she said as she tried not to smile at the look on Tony's face, "I have some white cheddar I have to get rid of."

"Do you want me to stay and help?" Tony asked, "And make sure it actually gets done?"

"No," Rae laughed, "We've got it."

After the meal had been cooked and eaten, everyone continued talking for a while more, telling each other about what they had been doing in the year they had been apart, keeping the conversation light, and mostly superficial, until Clint asked, "How are Jess and Dom?"

Rachel, who had been laughing at something Tony said, looked over at Clint with a sobered expression, "Um, they," Rachel paused and Raina answered for her, "They're dead."

As Clint's mouth dropped, Natasha asked, "What happened?" Everyone's heads turned to Rachel.

"Okay," Raina started, focusing the attention back on her, "It happened about nine months after you left. You guys remember Josh?" They all grimaced and nodded.

"Well, you know that he had an obsession with Rachel, and we thought that the last time we saw him was really going to be the last time we had to deal with him, but of course it wasn't. He came back -not to us- he found Jessica and Dominic and," Raina paused, "Killed them."

"What?"

"How?"

"I'm gonna kill him."

"Guys," Raina said above the noise, "Save all your questions, comments, concerns and anger till the end. He kidnapped them one day and locked them in a stolen car and pushed it into a lake in New Jersey."

"But he's in jail, right?" Natasha asked and when they all looked at her, she explained, "If he's in jail, it would be easier to find him."

"I agree with Tasha and Bruce, we should torture him, then kill him."

"He's not in jail. He pleaded insanity and they've put him in a mental hospital."

"So he got away with his crime?" Steve asked, enraged.

"Sort of," Raina answered, "But it's not like we know where he is guys. They didn't tell us; he could be anywhere in the country."

"I'm so sorry," Bruce said to Rachel.

"You didn't do it," She said, smiling at him. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I got enough of it at the funeral."

"She punched the pastor," Raina said, smiling.

"You what?" Steve asked, not believing what he was hearing, "Why?"

"Dominic was gay," Rae explained, "And the pastor, who didn't know, kept saying that all gays go to hell."

"You should've done more than punch him for insulting your family like that," Clint said seriously.

"So basically what you're saying is that the funeral didn't even help with the grieving process," Bruce said.

"Pretty much," Rachel said.

"You deserve better than that," Tony said.

"Thanks Tony," Rachel said.

Raina yawned suddenly and then said, "Well peeps, I don't know about you but I'm tired."

Rachel laughed, "It is kinda late."

"I call the bedroom upstairs," Natasha said quickly, which cause Raina and Rachel to laugh and Tony to start complaining.

"That's not fair! I don't want to sleep on the couch!"

"Should've been quicker Stark!" Natasha said immaturely.

"You know they still have the beds in the room behind the office, right?" Gwen interjected.

"Really," Bruce asked, "You still have them?"

"There's a room behind the office now?" Clint asked.

"We couldn't really bring ourselves to get rid of them," Rachel said, smiling slightly.

"But why is there a room behind the office now?" Clint asked again.

"I kinda burned down that part of the house."

"What? How?" Steve asked.

"Fireworks," Rachel answered simply.

"That sounds like Raina," Tony laughed.

"Yeah, we kinda messed up when we stuck it in the ground and it ended up going through my bathroom window."

"And by the time we put it out, her bathroom was ruined so we just decided to add another room for storage. Oh and the bathroom down here has a shower in it now." Noticing the looks on the Avengers' faces, Rachel said, "We figured since half the house had been destroyed, we might as well redo it."

"Obviously," Natasha said.

"Okay, well, bedtime for me!" Raina said, grabbing Loki's hand and heading up the stairs, closely followed by Natasha, who wanted to make sure she was going to get the bedroom upstairs. Rachel laughed and stayed up a little while longer with everyone else. When it came time for Rachel to go to bed, she grabbed Steve's hand and led him upstairs. As soon as she shut the door, Rachel stepped forward and tightly hugged a baffled Steve, who hugged her back.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"No," she answered honestly, "I'm tired, but I'm so glad you're back."

Steve smiled, "I'm glad to be back."

Rachel smiled back at him and once again wrapped her arms around him. They stayed like that for a few minutes before Steve said, "I hate to ruin the moment, but-"

"No it's fine," Rachel said, pulling away, "I think it's been a long day for everyone."

"Yeah," he chuckled, "I wasn't sure it was going to end."

Rachel smiled, "I know how that feels," she said as she walked over to her dresser, "All of your clothes are in the closet still," she added as she pulled out some pajamas. Steve walked over to the closet on the opposite side of the room from Rachel and opened it. He saw all of his clothes exactly in the same place that he left them. From the dust that he saw on them, he assumed that they hadn't been touched since he had gone back to the correct reality. Instead of preservation, the clothes showed neglect.

Frowning, Steve pulled out some pajamas and then turned to Rachel, who was still facing her dresser, with her back to him, "It was worse than you were telling everyone, wasn't it?"

"A little bit, yeah," Rachel admitted as she turned to face Steve, "But it doesn't matter right now. You're here, and that's all that I care about."

Steve smiled at her, but couldn't stop the uneasiness that he was feeling with Rachel's words. He could tell that she hadn't been taking care of herself, her hair was unruly, she had dark circles around her eyes and she was too thin. All of it only added to making Steve feel concerned about what all she had been through while he was gone.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning, Tony found himself awakened by yelling from the living room. As he walked out, he saw Raina jumping on the couch, completely unattended.  
  
“What are you doing?”  
  
“Rachel said we can watch _Rocky Horror Picture Show_ tonight!  I’m getting ready!” She exclaimed as she jumped off the couch, “I’m just waiting for Rae to wake up!”  
  
“Why are you making so much noise?”  Tony heard Gwen ask from the stairs.  
  
“Movie day!” Raina explained.  

“I should make popcorn,” she said, heading to the kitchen, where Bruce was making breakfast.  Tony looked at her as she left, feeling that it was beyond strange for Raina to be up first and Rachel wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Tony wondered where Clint was, and then realized that he was probably in Natasha’s room.  He decided to follow Raina and go into the kitchen as well.  
  
“Why hasn’t anyone else gotten up?” Tony asked as Gwen walked into the room.  They both sat at the table at the same time.  
  
“No idea.”  
  
“It’s almost noon,” Tony said.  
  
“Everyone needs to sleep in every once in a while Tony,” Bruce responded.  
  
“Where’d Raina go? I thought she was making popcorn.” Gwen said.  At almost the same time that Gwen stopped speaking, they heard a crash in the next room.  
  
“What’s she doing in the dining room?” Gwen asked, getting up and heading towards the dining room.  Gwen opened the doors and gasped, “What the hell were you doing with flour?”  
  
“It was in front of the Halloween bowl.”  Gwen sighed and walked into the room, “Okay, just go get the cleaning stuff and help me clean it up.”  Raina must have agreed because Tony watched as she walked towards the bathroom and come back with a broom and a bucket full of what Tony could only assume was cleaning supplies.  Tony smiled at the insanity that Raina kept around her all the time.

“I really missed being here,” Tony said, almost to himself.

“Me too,” Bruce smiled, though he was also thinking of the fact that the Other Guy couldn’t follow him here. 

“Do you think Rachel’s alright?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Her family was murdered, we were nowhere to be found, Raina couldn’t been all that helpful and have you really looked at Rae?  She’s not been taking care of herself.”

Bruce sighed, “I think that she could be better, but she’s not for all of the reasons that you just listed.  I mean, can you imagine going through all of that practically alone?”

Tony nodded, “You’re right, I’m just over concerned.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Bruce said, “We’re just coming in not knowing the whole story.  I’m sure everything’s going to be fine.  Can you go and wake everyone up?”  
  
“Yeah I-” Tony was interrupted by a Gwen yelling.  
  
“Raina! Get back here!”  
  
“Never!”  Bruce glanced at Tony and then walked into the dining room as Tony walked to the stairs to head to the bedrooms..  
  
“Are you okay?” Bruce asked Gwen as he walked into the room.  
  
“No,” she snapped, but then added, “Sorry, Raina’s just rubbing every last nerve I’ve got here.  I’m kinda starting to understand why Rachel just gave up.”  
  
“What do you mean?” Bruce asked as he bent over and reached for the broom, which had been thrown on the ground and started sweeping.  
  
“She just lets Raina do whatever she feels like it, and if you ask me, it’s turned Rain into more of a child, if possible.”  
  
“I don’t understand-” Bruce started.  
  
“Rachel’s changed, she and Rain were a perfect balance, but now, Rae won’t do anything to stop Raina from being completely chaotic.”  
  
“Oh, why not?”  Feeling like everything that he just said to Tony was to be proven incorrect.  
  
“No idea, but it definitely has something to do with you guys.”  Bruce stopped sweeping and looked at Gwen with guilt.  
  
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Gwen said quickly, “I meant that it coincides with you guys leaving but it could also be with Jess and Dom’s deaths.  I wasn’t saying that it was your fault.  I mean, I didn’t even get to see any of this first hand till two weeks ago.”  
  
“We should’ve tried harder to get them to go with us,” Bruce said sadly.    
  
Gwen frowned, “Yeah and have them leave everyone that they care about.  What a great idea.”    
  
Bruce sighed and started sweeping up again, but said nothing.  He heard the door connecting the dining room to the hall open and looked up to see a newly woken Rachel.  
  
“What’d she do?”  
  
“Spilled flour and ran off.”  
  
“Oh, let me help you clean it up.”  
  
“How about you just make her come back here and clean it up?” Gwen asked.  
  
“No, it’s fine, I don’t want to deal with the fight that will inevitably come.”  Gwen made a disapproving noise and frowned.  Bruce also frowned, Rachel didn’t back down from a fight.  
  
“We’ve almost got it done,” Bruce said after a second.  
  
“Okay, I’ll make breakfast then,” Rachel said, yawning.  
  
“I already did it.” Rachel’s eyes widened, “Well, I’m useless this morning.”  
  
“It’s noon,” Gwen said tersely.  
  
“Oh well,” Rachel said, shrugging.  
  
“Where’s Raina?”  
  
“Probably with Loki,” Rachel said, walking forward and starting to wipe the flour off the table with one of the washcloths.  
  
“Aren’t you going to say anything to her?”  
  
“I’m not her mother.  You go say something if you want.”  
  
“She wants to do a movie day and she said that you told her that she could.”  
  
“I did, last week.  Why does it matter?”  
  
“Shouldn’t someone go grocery shopping?  I mean there’s over twice as many people here as there was yesterday.  There’s stuff we should be doing.”  
  
“Fine, write out a list and I’ll go.”  Gwen frowned once again, “I thought Raina could do it because she always gets the groceries.”  
  
Rachel shrugged, “No it’s fine, I’ll just do it.”  
  
“Whatever,” Gwen said, walking out of the room.  Bruce looked over at Rachel, who sighed.  
  
“I’m not Rain’s mother,” she repeated again, though Bruce didn’t know if it was for her benefit or his.  
  
“What happened?”  Bruce asked.  
  
Rachel looked at Bruce, “Loki left and she got depressed, so I did what any incapable mother would do, and I just stopped trying to discipline her because only doing stupid things made her happy again, so I just made sure that she didn’t kill herself while doing these things.”  
  
“You just described yourself as a mother, why do you keep saying that you’re not hers?  If I had to guess, I’d say you were the closest thing she’s ever had to a mom.”  
  
Rachel sighed and smiled sadly, “Because now she’s out of control and I just don’t want to fight to get back in control. I didn’t have fun being at trying to be a grown up at fifteen, and I don’t want to be a grown up now.”  
  
“That’s not how life works.  And are you seriously telling me that you’ve never had fun since you turned fifteen?  What about-” Bruce was cut off by Clint yelling in the other room, “Raina, get off!”  
  
Bruce looked over at Rachel, “Now would be a good time to start reasserting yourself, especially if you can get Loki on your side.”  

 

Rachel nodded and walked into the hall and finding Raina on Clint, piggyback style, nearly choking him from her grip.  Rachel rolled her eyes and walked into the living room, “Raina,” she said, her voice taking on the familiar authoritative tone, “Get off of him, you’re going to kill him.”  
  
“No,” Rain said, smirking at Rachel and clearly asking “what are you going to do about it?”  
  
“Sorry Clint,” Rachel said, causing Clint’s eyes to widen and stop moving so that he could ask, “What?” while facing Rachel.  
  
Rachel stepped forward and hit Raina in the side, where Rachel knew she was ticklish, which caused Raina’s eyes to widen and her to slip off of Clint, but not without scratching his neck on the way down.  Raina hit the floor with a thud.  
  
“Are you okay Clint?”  
  
“You are inquiring about him when you just made Rain hit her head on the floor?”  Loki asked incredulously.  
  
“Yeah, I warned her Loki.  She didn’t listen.”   Loki glared at Rachel as he helped Raina up.  
  
“Are you okay Raina?”  Raina nodded.  
  
“Don’t strangle people, that’s bad and they don’t like it.”  
  
“Yeah, you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?”  
  
“Yes, I would, so don’t do it anymore.  Go get breakfast.”  Raina nodded and started to walk off, but stopped when Tony, who had just come back downstairs with Steve and Natasha, asked about _why_ Rachel would know about being strangled.  
  
Raina turned back to Tony with a smirk on her face and said, “Oh, Michael hated her, so he tried to kill her before he died.  How many times was it?”    
  
 By the time everyone in the room looked over to Rachel, they saw that the colour had drained from her face and her mouth was in a thin line as she glared at Raina. “Go,” Rachel said, her voice steely and hard.  Rain looked at Rachel, still trying to test the boundaries of what Rae would do until Rachel added, “Now.”    
  
Loki, sensing that Raina had crossed a line that he didn’t even know existed, pulled her towards the kitchen.  Bruce, who had finished cleaning up the flour, came into the living room, “What happened?” He asked, not sure as to why everyone was staring at Rachel.  
  
“Who’s Michael?”  
  
“It doesn’t matter, he’s, as Rain was so kind to point out, dead, so it doesn’t matter.”  
  
“But-”  
  
“She doesn’t want to talk about it,” Steve said suddenly, cutting across Tony’s protest.  Though Tony usually didn’t back down, he could tell by the expressions on both Steve and Rachel’s faces, that this was not a time to fight, so he just nodded.  
  
“He _was_ her brother.  The older one, but I’m pretty sure she only told Steve about him.”  The Avengers saw the look of rage on Rachel’s face and stepped between Raina and Rachel, Steve going so far as to hold onto her wrist in case he needed to stop her from murdering her friend.  
  
“Rachel, I have a list.  Why don’t you go to the store?”  Gwen said in a voice that made it clear that it wasn’t a suggestion.  Rachel took her eyes off of Raina, “Sure, uh, Natasha, you wanna come?”  
  
“Yeah, I’ll go,” Natasha said, though she was surprised that Rachel didn’t ask Steve.  

Rachel nodded, and said, “Fifteen minutes,” then headed out of the room.  Steve glanced at Raina with an exasperated look and then followed Rachel upstairs.  Steve walked to Rachel’s room and opened the door, just in time to see Rachel throwing a shirt over her head; she had already changed into jeans.  
  
“Why didn’t you tell me?”  Rachel turned around to face Steve, “Because, he’s dead.  It doesn’t matter, there’s absolutely nothing to do about it.  It happened, and it can’t be changed.”  
  
Steve shut the door and walked further into the room, “Yeah well it doesn’t mean that you should keep it inside.”

“I don’t really roll like that,” Rachel said, smiling emptily.  

Steve decided to change tactics, knowing that Rachel would only talk about herself when she wasn’t in control, “Why is Rain acting like this?”  
  
“Because I couldn’t do what was best for her while Loki was gone,” Rachel said, looking down at the ground to hide the tears that were welling up in her eyes.  
  
“And what did you do for you while I was gone?”  Rachel looked up at Steve, who was now only inches from her, “I held myself together for Rain and I.  _I’m_ the one who didn’t break down and cry for three months straight,” Rachel ended, more angrily than she intended.    
  
Steve frowned at her, “Sometime people need to cry Rachel, it’s not a sign of weakness.”    
  
Rachel smiled up at Steve, “That’s not really how I work.”  
  
“You should try new things.”  

Rachel laughed, and then said, “I have to go. I also have to force a wig on Natasha, but not in that order.”  Steve chuckled at the ridiculousness of Rachel’s statement.  

He leaned down and kissed her softly before saying, “Okay, but you know this conversation isn’t over, right?”

Rachel sighed heavily, “I know.”  
  
After Rachel had convinced Natasha that wearing a black wig would be the only way that she could leave the house, the women set off to the store.


	8. Chapter 8

"What the hell?" Clint asked as soon as Rachel shut the door behind Natasha. He looked over to everyone else, Gwen and Raina were in the other room, getting things ready for movie night, Gwen was there for supervision.

"I don't know," Bruce said, "Gwen mentioned that there were some problems between the two of them, but I didn't know it would be like this."

"That was unusually cruel for Raina, her pranks may pack a punch, but she's never been mean about it." Tony said.

"She did cross a line," Loki, who had been banished from the kitchen by Gwen, said. "Tell us about Michael, Captain."

Steve sighed and said, "All I knew before today was that he was her older step-brother and he died in a motorcycle accident when Rae was eighteen."

Bruce sighed heavily, "How do we fix this?" Any answer that the rest of the group may have come up with couldn't be said because Gwen and Raina chose that moment to walk in. Raina was smiling deviously and Gwen looked flustered, "Okay, everything's done; we just need to wait till evening." She threw herself on the couch in between Loki and Tony.

"I don't want to wait that long," Raina whined, sitting on Loki's lap and laying her head onto his shoulder.

"Well too bad, no one wants to watch a movie during the day"

"Loki," Raina started.

"I have no say in this, wait until Rachel comes back."

 

+~*~+

 

During their walk to the store, Natasha remained silent, calculating the best time to bring up the incident. She didn't really want to push Rachel to tell her, but she was only going to wait so long before she started asking questions. Though she considered Rachel a friend, Natasha was still fine with manipulating Rachel into telling Natasha what she wanted to know. She started talking to Rachel as soon as they entered the store, but didn't bring up Michael until they were nearly done with the shopping.

"You had an older brother. Why didn't you tell us about him? And why did you keep his," Natasha paused trying to word things correctly, "Actions hidden from Steve?" Rachel sighed and shrugged as they walked through the store.

"He's dead now, so I like to remember him in the best light possible."

"Then why does Rain know?"

"She was there when it was happening. I had to wear a scarf to school one day, which was lucky because it was scarf weather, but then Raina ended up pulling it off my neck and she saw the marks." Natasha regarded Rachel as she spoke, noticing how removed she seemed while telling the story.

"You'd make a good agent," Natasha said.

"Is that a compliment?" Rachel asked unsurely.

"No, you don't want to be an agent. Not the kind I am anyway. You're kind and genuinely care about other people, it's just upsetting that you're too much like I am sometimes."

Rachel looked over to Natasha as she spoke, "How am I too much like you?"

"You're too removed from your own emotions, which makes an excellent agent, or the beginnings of one, but it's not so good for a regular person. Emotions are what separate us from everyone else initially, and then it's training for a skillset."

Rachel sighed as she checked the eggs that she was getting, "I'm not good with showing emotions and I don't like crying."

"It's not weakness; sometimes crying on command can even be a skill."

Rachel laughed, then said, "He was my step-brother, not my brother."

"It doesn't matter, you shouldn't have been treated that way."

"I know. I'm a good person and I didn't deserve half the things that happened to me."

"Recite that often?" Natasha said sarcastically.

"Enough, can you get those?" Rachel asked, pointing to a pack of granola bars, which were closer to Natasha.

"Sure," she said as she picked up the box and handed it to Rachel.

"Thanks."

"No problem, how many times did he do it?"

Rachel frowned, "More than enough. We were both angry that our parents died and we blamed each other. We'd get into fights and he'd always go for the throat; I'd always try to break his nose then go for the groin."

"Is that why you had that reaction with Thor? You did it a little too quick to have just thought of it, but I assumed that Rain, or even your father or mother, had taught you to do it."

"No such luck," Rachel laughed, "I think we've got everything." Natasha nodded and the two women headed for the checkout. As they were walking back, Natasha started up the conversation again, "What's going on with you and Raina?"

Rachel sighed, "Things happened after you guys left," she said simply, "We both changed."

"But you're still together," Natasha encouraged

"Yeah, but where else could we go? We're the only two people in the world who knows what the other is going through. I just wish that things could fall back to where they were before you guys left. Rain's getting out of control and I'm powerless to stop her."

"You know she's probably just doing all of this stuff to get your attention, right?"

"Yeah, I know. You wanna get a cab?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Natasha laughed.

 

+~*~+

 

As Natasha and Rachel walked through the door of the house, Rachel was met with an excited Raina.

"Rachel! Can we start the movies now? Please?"

"I thought we were waiting till dark to do it."

"But I wanna do it now."

"Raina," Rachel said, looking directly at her friend, "Just, hold on, let me put this stuff up."

"Okay," Raina mumbled, taking a seat at the table in the kitchen and watching as Rachel put up the groceries with the help of Natasha and Gwen.

"Can we please watch movies now?"

"Movies, yes, Nightmare Before Christmas or Rocky Horror, no."

"But why not?"

"Because we agreed to wait until it was dark, so that's what we're going to do. But you're more than welcome to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween or Orphan."

"It's not fun watching those in the day time."

"Then find something else to do. I've got to make dinner, but when we're done with dinner, we can start watching the movies." Raina huffed and sighed, but said no more on the subject.

Even though Natasha, Steve and Bruce helped to make dinner, it still took them around two hours to get everything done and put on the table. The whole group ate happily, joking around with one another and enjoying each other's company as well as the food. When they finished eating, Rachel made Raina help put things up, and even though Tony was helping as well, it took them awhile to get everything cleaned up.

"Can we watch movies now?" Raina asked as she closed the door to the dishwasher.

"It's not dark yet," Gwen answered. Raina completely ignored Gwen and looked at Rachel, who said, "It's gonna be dark in about five minutes, I don't see why we need to make her wait, the movie won't even be started by that time. Go get them."

"You're spoiling her."

"It's going to take her five minutes to find the DVDs and get the movie started, and it doesn't matter, it's just semantics."

"Whatever," Gwen said, rolling her eyes.

"Plus, she's still going to want to make popcorn. It's fine Gwen."

"Okay."

Rachel smiled at Gwen and then walked into the living room, "Anyone who wants to see Nightmare Before Christmas can go into the entertainment room, anyone who doesn't may remain here or go somewhere else, as long as it's not to take a leisurely walk where other people can see you." The group chuckled and started to arrange themselves accordingly. Raina ran down the stair carrying multiple DVD cases.

"Popcorn! We need popcorn!" Raina yelled from the entertainment room.

"Come in here and make it. But just push the popcorn button and leave it."

"Okay," Raina said, running into the kitchen. Rachel walked into the entertainment room and looked at everyone.

"This isn't going to work, Tony, Clint, you're both going to have to move, that's where Rain and I sit and we will fight for those seats. Tony and Clint both moved with no argument, knowing how scary Rain and Rachel were when they were working together.

Rachel smiled and sat in her seat and waited for Raina to come in. They all rearranged themselves so that Steve was sitting on the right of Rachel and Loki was to be on the other side of Raina when she sat down next to Rachel. Tony took the chair to the right of Steve while Natasha and Clint shared the larger chair. Gwen and Bruce sat on the other couch. Finally, Raina came running in with three medium sized bowls of popcorn and handed them out to Clint, Bruce and Tony. She then left and came in with a large Halloween themed bowl for herself, Loki, Rachel and Steve. Raina handed the Halloween bowl to Rachel, then put the movie in.

"Nightmare?" Rachel asked.

"Of course. Then Rocky Horror, then the other Nightmare, then Friday the Thirteenth."

"Sounds good kid."

"If any of you talk during my movie, you will regret it," Raina warned, causing everyone to stare at her.

"It's an empty threat," Rachel reassured everyone, "She's going to be singing throughout the movie." They all chuckled as Raina hit the play button and almost immediately began reciting the movie, verbatim, from memory. After the film was over, Raina got up and put in Rocky Horror Picture Show. Raina smiled at Rachel, who smiled back, not understanding why Rain's smile looked slightly scary. What she hadn't thought about was how Steve would take the movie.

From the second the red lips came on the screen until the end, Rachel, Raina and Gwen sang every song and recited every line. The only exception being when Frank N Furter came on and threw off his cape, causing Steve's eyes to widen and everyone else to giggle uncontrollably. And through her giggles, Rachel quickly explained the plot of the movie to Steve, hoping to prepare him for other surprises along the way. When the movie finished, Bruce, Gwen, Steve and Rachel headed to bed while everyone else stayed up to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street.

When they got upstairs, Rachel asked Steve whether or not he liked the movies with a coy smile.

"It was interesting. It was definitely you and Raina though."

Rachel smiled, "Well thanks, I'm glad you think that transvestites are definitely me."

Steve rolled his eyes at her, then smiled, "You know what I mean. It's out there and extravagant. Just like you and Rain."

"I thought that I was normal."

Steve laughed as he began to change into his pajamas.

"Compared to Rain, sure."

"Everyone is normal compared to Rain."

Steve smiled as he went and sat on the bed, "Yeah, but you're her friend, so you're still on a different level from everyone else."

"Well that's good to know, but I don't think you realise that by associating yourself with me, you're going to be on another level too."

"I'm already on a different level, in this world and the other."

"Fair point," Rachel giggled as she mirrored Steve's motions, sitting on the bed as well, facing him.

"You know I'm going to ask you to explain everything now, don't you?"

"I do. I actually thought you'd do it sooner."

"Patience is a virtue."

Rachel smiled, "What do you want to know?'

"The whole story."

"That's going to take a while," Rachel said, looking down.

"I've got time," Steve said, smiling at the memory of the last time he had said that to Rae.


	9. Chapter 9

Loki awoke that morning feeling oddly cold. Being a frost giant, he was used to the cold; it did not affect him as it did others. In this reality, however, he was a mere human and oh how he did feel the cold. He opened his eyes to look over at Raina. Sometime during the night she had taken all of the blankets and wrapped them around herself in a sort of cocoon, all that could be seen of her was a little patch of her hair poking out of the top of the cocoon.  
  
Groaning, Loki reached over and attempted to pull some of the covers back over to his side. When they did not seem to budge he tried to pull them a little harder. “Rain.” He tried to wake her up. “Rain, you have all the covers and it’s cold.” His only response was a groan and something that sounded like ‘I don’t care’.  
  
“Well you should care because I’m cold.”  
  
“You’re a frost giant you can get over it.” Raina grumbled through the blankets.  
  
“In my reality maybe, but here I am human so give me some blankets.” Loki was now working to try and unravel Raina from within the sheets, to no avail. Suddenly, Loki gave one big pull on the blankets, causing them to fly over top of him and onto the floor; Raina ended up lying on top of him.  
  
“Mmm, comfy.” She muttered returning to sleep. Loki sighed and gave up, throwing his arms around Raina, and returning to sleep.  
  
Loki awoke hours later to find Raina walking out of the bathroom, hair still wet, slipping on a t-shirt as she walked into the room. “'Bout time you woke up.” Raina teased Loki as she went over to the bed and sat next to him. Loki raised himself up to lean on his elbow.  
  
“Yes, well, when you spend half the night freezing it gets quite difficult to sleep.” Loki retorted, leaning upwards to place a kiss on her lips. Raina returned the kiss, smiling as they pulled away seconds later.  
  
“Well, here's your chance,” She stood, picked up the fallen blankets on the floor, and threw them on top of Loki, “I'll be downstairs.” Raina picked up her laptop and left the room.  
  
+~*~+  
Steve and Raina sat in the living room. Steve was on the couch while Raina was on the floor in front of him on the laptop. Steve sighed; Raina’s head was covering up the bottom half of the screen.  
  
“Hey Rain?” Steve asked her.  
  
“Hmm?”  
  
“Could you move over a little please?” He asked in high hopes.  
  
“Nope.” She responded, full attention on her computer screen. Steve sighed again, then smiled as he remembered the last time he had tried to watch the television only to have Raina blocking the bottom half.  
  
  
+~*~+  
  
 _Raina was sitting in the floor in front of the couch on her computer, blocking the bottom half of it. Steve was sitting on the couch behind her. He had long since given up trying to make her move and was enjoying what little of the television he could see. Suddenly, Raina burst into a fit of giggles. Steve, being the curious “out of time soldier” that he was, wanted to know what all the laughter was about._  
  
 _“What’s so funny?”_  
  
 _“Hm?” Raina’s laughter calmed down as she turned to look at him over his shoulder. “Just internet stuff. You probably wouldn’t get it.”_  
  
 _“Then teach me.” Steve moved off of the couch and went to sit down beside her._  
  
 _“Okay...lemme see...ah! Here we go, Urban Dictionary’s definition of the internet: ‘A wonderfully intended invention which connects people all across the world and reminds us how alike we all are. A sea of applicable and totally non-applicable knowledge, the internet has possibilities sprouting out of its possibilities. It is a revolutionary tool for enhancing the everyday lives of the lazy, the stoned, the crackpots, the insomniacs, the anti-social and the procrastinators. The internet is a modern day outlet for shopping, knowledge, communication, grass-root movements, information, personal expression, school, media sharing and organizations. The internet has probably had the biggest affect on all people of any technological advance in the past thirty years.’” Raina read out loud to Steve._  
  
 _“What?” Steve asked. Raina sighed._  
  
 _“People put stuff up on online billboards called websites where billions of other people can view it. Anything and everything is on the internet.” Raina closed out her web page and handed the laptop to him. “Just hold it in your lap like I was. There. Now see that little square thing? It controls the pointy thing, aka the cursor. With the cursor you can open up these programs by clicking on their pictures. You see the one that looks like a circlely triangle? Drag the cursor over to it and click it.”_  
  
 _“Like this?” Steve asked her._  
  
 _“Yes, perfecto! Now, this program is called a web browser, with it you can search the internet. Move the cursor over to the blank bar and type in anything.”_  
  
 _“Anything?”_  
  
 _“Yes Steve, anything.” Steve thought for a moment, after a few seconds Raina got antsy and decided to type something in herself. Steve watched in horror as he saw the words ‘roadkill’ being typed out on screen. “Now click the button that says ‘Enter’.” Steve cautiously reached over and pressed the button, only to be visually assaulted by horrific and graphic pictures of dead animals on the road popping up on the screen._  
  
 _“Rain!” Steve yelled at her. Raina began to laugh maniacally at him._  
  
 _“Ok ok , I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist. Anyways, “ Raina exited off of the internet for him. “Let me teach you a little about these buttons on the laptop.”_  
  
 _“What does this one do?” Steve asked her as he reached to press one of them._  
  
 _“Ahh! No don’t touch that! That one’s turns the wifi on and off!”_  
  
 _“You have a radio on here?”  Raina gave him a look._  
  
 _“No, well yes, well its not that button! Oh my Odin, I should let Rachel teach you!” Raina stood from the floor, took her laptop from Steve, and left to go upstairs to her room._  
+~*~+  
Steve sighed, “You sure you can’t move over just a little bit?” Raina turned to look at him, giving him an evil smirk. Suddenly, Rachel walked by coming down from upstairs and going into the kitchen.  
  
“Rain, move, now.” She commanded. Raina groaned loudly as she flopped onto her side, lying on the floor.  
  
“You know, you could come sit up on the couch or something Rain.” Steve stated, feeling uncomfortable just looking at the way Raina was sprawled out on the floor.  
  
“But I want to be right at the T.V.” Raina groaned again. She remained on the floor for a minute or so more until she jumped up and ran into the kitchen.  
  
“Rain, get back here with my sandwich!” Rachel yelled from inside the kitchen. Steve turned quickly to see what was going on just as Raina sprinted from the kitchen and up the stairs. A minute later Rachel emerged from the kitchen with a newly made sandwich and sat down on the couch next to Steve.  
  
“You okay?” Steve asked her as he placed a hand onto her knee.  
  
“Peachy.” Rachel muttered as she bit savagely into the sandwich.  Steve decided it was a matter best left alone for now and turned back to the T.V.  
  
Steve and Rachel sat together in silence for a while longer, until Bruce called Steve into the dining room to help him with something.  Rachel decided that she wasn’t curious enough to find out what they were doing and therefore stayed where she was with her sandwich.  A few moments later, Tony plopped down in the space that Steve had just vacated and took Rachel’s sandwich.  
  
“Seriously?” she asked with disbelief.  
  
“Please,” Tony said between bites, “You weren’t eating it.”  
  
Rachel chuckled despite herself, “Yeah, you’re right.”  
  
“I know; I’m always right.”  
  
“You’re so modest,” Rachel said sarcastically.  
  
“I try,” Tony said before finishing off the sandwich.  
  
“Man, I really think I wanted that.”  
  
“Go make another one.”  
  
“I don’t want to,” Rachel whined.  
  
“Since when did you act like the child?”    
  
Rachel looked over at Tony, “It’s always been a secret ambition of mine.”  
  
“I used to do that you know,” Tony started, “But then I realised that I needed to grow up-”  
  
“Yeah I know, when you were kidnapped.”  
  
“I forget that you know everything about me,” Tony said.  
  
“Not everything,” Rachel said, “Rain would know more.  I love the comics, but I was never a big comic reader.”  
  
“Oh, but as I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me,” Tony started, causing Rachel to giggle, “I also found that there is a potential balance between doing the things that need to get done, a.k.a. being an adult and having so much fun that you probably don’t remember it the next day, a.k.a. being childish.  You don’t have to pick one or the other.”  
  
Rachel sighed, “I know what you’re trying to do Tony, and I appreciate it, but you guys will have to come up with something a little more-”  
  
“No one’s coming up with anything Rae.  I’m just saying something that you need to hear.”  
  
“Oh,” Rachel said.  
  
“Yep,” Tony replied.  They were silent for a few seconds until Tony said, “I don’t know what happened with you two, but it obviously wasn’t good. I understand going through something and not really being able to tell anyone about it, but you guys really let it get to you.”  
  
“What were we supposed to do Tony?”  
  
“You could’ve done what we did.  We looked out for one another. What we didn't do was let each other go off the deep end. We probably stopped Steve from jumping off a bridge a couple times, but then he helped Bruce and Clint when they needed it. And-”  
  
“Who helped you Tony?” Rachel asked quietly.  
  
“Bruce mostly,” he said after a moment, “But before I was even at a place to get help from Bruce, Pepper.  I needed to be there for her.  She’s always been there for me.  She was even there for me before I knew how much I needed her, which is actually a pretty impressive feat for anyone.  I know how I act and she’s never judged me for any of it.  Well, if she did, she got over it.”  
  
Rachel chuckled, “She sounds like a saint.”  
  
Tony smiled, “Sometimes she is.  She listened to me talk about you and Rain for a year and didn’t try to stop me.  She even gave me the idea to start working on a way to get back here and drag you two back with me.”  
  
“She told you to kidnap us?”  
  
“No, she was suggesting a way to have regular visits, but I was just going to drag the pair of you over to our reality.”  
  
“Did it ever work?”  
  
“Bruce and I were just testing it for the first time when we were drug over here.”  
  
“So that’s a-”  
  
“It would have worked, were we not so rudely interrupted by going to another reality.”  
  
Rachel laughed, “I know.  Because you’re you and Bruce is just as intelligent.”  
  
“True.”  
  
“Do you miss her?”  
  
“Of course, but I know with certainty that I’m going to get to see her again.  It’s not like last time.  I’m not afraid that I’m going to have to live out my life in this god forsaken place with no chance of seeing Pepper.”  
  
“No offense or anything,” Rachel supplied sarcastically.  
  
“You have to come back with us this time,” Tony said suddenly.  
  
“Tony-”  
  
“There’s no reason not to, your entire family is dead and the only person you’ve got here is Rain and she’s going to go with Loki this time.”  
  
“What about Gwen?”  
  
“She can come too.  I don’t care; I just can’t watch everyone get depressed again.  We need you guys.”  
  
Rachel heard the desperation in his voice, and reached over and hugged Tony, “Okay Tony.” In truth, Rachel had already decided that she was going to go back with everyone; she had only been waiting on confirming it until she knew that Gwen would be welcome to come as well.  
  
After their conversation, Tony took the plate that Rachel had the sandwich on to the kitchen and put it up, seemingly in a better mood.  Rachel then decided that it was time to go and see what Bruce and Steve were up to.  She walked into the dining room and saw them trying to hang up the curtain rod.  
  
“Do I even want to know what happened here?”  
  
“Probably not,” Bruce answered as he stood on a chair and tried to put the screws back in the place that they had been ripped from.  
  
“I kinda tripped and took the curtains with me,” Gwen said.  
  
“Are you okay?”  
  
“Yeah, I just scraped my elbow, nothing too major.”  
  
“What did you trip on?”  
  
“Air,” Gwen said, chuckling.  
  
“I’m glad to see that you’re back to your usual carefree ways.”  
  
Gwen smiled, “That I am.”  
  
“No wait!  They’re going to be uneven. Stop.”  Rachel said to Bruce and Steve.  
  
“She’s OCD, in case you two didn’t realise.”  
  
“Just let me get the measuring tape. Don’t do anything.”  Rachel said as Steve asked what OCD meant.  While Rachel was gone, Gwen and Bruce explained obsessive compulsive disorder to Steve.  It took them into the early evening hours, but Bruce and Steve, with the help of Clint, Natasha and Rachel, got the curtain rod in the exact place that Rachel wanted it.  
  
“How do you get anything done?” Clint asked.  
  
“Usually very easily,” Rachel replied as she hung the curtains back up.  
  
Clint just chuckled and sarcastically asked if there was anything else that he could help with, to which Rachel, missing the sarcasm, declined.  
  
As the evening progressed, it was becoming clear to Rachel that the Avengers were getting restless with being back in the wrong reality and stuck in a house, so she took some of Raina’s comic books and told her that the Avengers had done it and let Raina chase them around the house and backyard for a few hours.  
  
“Raina!” Rachel yelled at her friend when she saw her tackle Natasha to the ground, “I found them!  They were on the book case for some reason!”  
  
“But _you_ put them there,” Gwen said to Rachel.  
  
“Yep.”  
  
“You’re a horrible person.”  
  
“Don’t judge, you weren’t here last time.  It was almost like a war zone with them being bored.  You have to remember that even without their powers, they’re all lethal killing machines.”  
  
“Even Bruce?”  
  
“Well, no.  Shit I didn’t even think about that.  I’ll make it up to him later.”  
  
Gwen just laughed from her spot on the couch as everyone came stumbling in, led by Raina, who grabbed her comics and threatened the Avengers with their lives, should they ever touch her comics again.  
  
“But we didn’t touch them in the first place,” Clint whined.  
  
“She must have misplaced them,” Rachel said with a straight face.  
  
“Ugh, but why go after _us_?” Bruce asked as he threw himself on the couch.  
  
“Well, it seemed to be one comic from each of your stories.  It’s kinda weird.”  
  
“Almost as if someone planned it,” Tony said looking into the kitchen where Loki was making food for himself and Raina.  Rachel saw where the conversation was going to lead and said, “She could have put them there herself.”  
  
“But _why_?”  
  
“Does Rain really need a reason?”  
  
“True.”  
  
“She is crazy like that,” Clint said, causing Loki, who was coming out of the kitchen to say, “Careful how you speak.”  
  
“She has crazy moments,” Rachel said, something that Loki couldn’t disagree with, so he just shrugged and headed upstairs.  
  
“Do they really need all that food?” Gwen complained, “We’re going to have to go shopping soon again.”  
  
“We’re okay for a while Gwen,” Rachel assured her.  
  
“If you say so,” Gwen said, unconvinced.  
  
Due to being chased around by Raina, the Avengers went to bed early, leaving Gwen and Rachel up by themselves for a while.  They sat, sprawled across the couch with their legs entangled, watching a lifetime movie and occasionally throwing popcorn at one another.  Eventually Gwen started to fall asleep, so Rachel woke her up and the two of them went up to their rooms.


	10. Chapter 10

Rachel walked into her room to find a slumbering Steve. While keeping the lights off, so as not to disturb Steve, Rae tiptoed into the bathroom so that she could take a shower.  Rachel showered and dried off quickly; she then put on her pajamas. Rachel took a few steps into her room then tripped over something that hadn’t been there before.  Rachel landed on her face with a thump, “Fuck,” she moaned in pain.  
  
“Rachel?” Steve asked, turning on the light and, once finding her, crawling out of bed and meeting her on the floor, "Are you okay?" He asked as he helped her into a sitting position.  
  
"Yeah," Rachel said, rubbing her head.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"I tripped."  
  
"I kinda figured that," Steve said, smiling.  
  
"Well, _Sherlock_ ," Rachel said, "That's where your investigation is going to end; I have no idea what I tripped over."  
  
Steve chuckled, "What about _that_?"  
  
Rachel turned to look in the direction that he was pointing in and saw a plush Loki with plastic horns on the floor in front of the doorway that connects the bathroom to the bedroom.  
  
"Raina," Rachel growled, "She must have figured out that I took the comics."  
  
" _You_ took the comics?"  
  
"Uh, no?"  
  
"I shouldn't be surprised, but I would like to know why." Rachel moved so that she was sitting with her back against the bed.  
  
"I needed a way to get you guys tired so you wouldn't have energy to go at each other."  
  
“I _really_ can’t believe you lie so well,” Steve shook his head as he settled next to Rachel, also with his back against the bed.  
  
Rachel chuckled, “I have many talents.”  
  
“Well I know about the amazing skills of deflecting topics that you don’t want to talk about, your problem solving abilities, your organisation skills and your deception.  What other ‘talents’ do you have?”  
  
“You forgot one.”  
  
“Oh?” Steve questioned, turning his head so that he was looking at Rachel, “What?”  
  
Rachel leaned up and kissed Steve, saying once she pulled away, “I have amazing kissing skills.”  
  
Steve smiled at her, “Yep, forgot that one.”  
  
Rachel smiled back for a second.  When her smile faltered, it prompted Steve to ask, “What’s wrong?”  
  
“You didn’t tell me how bad it really was, did you?” She asked, echoing Steve’s words.  Steve frowned and looked forward, at the wall, “It wasn’t bad, it was just,” he paused, searching for the right word, “Difficult.”  
  
“Tell me,” Rachel said leaning so as to catch Steve’s eye.  
  
“I thought I was going to die when I went under and then I woke up and I was,” Steve paused, remembering the emotions, “confused.”  He sighed heavily, “Then I found out that I lost everyone I knew and had been set seventy years in the future and then I was lonely and confused and depressed and having nightmares.”  Steve frowned, “But I didn’t give up and I never lost hope that something good would happen, then I had to save the world, so I didn’t have time to think for a while.  And after all that, I got thrown into a reality where I’m not even real.”  Rachel was watching Steve with anticipation and a little fear for what he was going to say.  
  
“It was okay because I got to meet you, and Rain,” Steve said, turning to face Rachel, “And I thought that you were my something good. But then we had to leave and you had to stay,” Steve frowned at the memory, “I thought I had lost you forever, so when I got back I thought, ‘What’s the point?’”  
  
Rachel took Steve’s hand as he continued, “I just didn’t think it was fair.”  
  
“It’s not,” Rachel agreed.  Steve sighed and gave Rachel a half smile.  
  
“But you’re back and I’m here now, so let’s just-”  
  
“Are you coming back?”  Steve asked, interrupting her.  
  
“Yes Steve,” Rachel answered immediately.  
  
 “Really?”  
  
“Everything that tied me here is either dead or going to have to leave again soon.  There’s no point in staying and I don’t want to be without you.”  
  
This time Steve smiled fully, acutely aware of the fact that this was the first time Rachel had outright said she had intentions of going wherever he went, “How’d you figure out that things were,” Steve paused, “Difficult?”  
  
“Tony.  We were talking about Rain and I and then the conversation shifted to you guys and he said a few things.”  
  
“For example?” Steve prompted.  
  
“That you guys were there for each other always.  And he basically said that Bruce and Clint had to talk you away from trying to kill yourself.”  
  
“I never-”  
  
“But you didn’t say that you had been having trouble when you went back.”  
  
“No offense Rachel, but you’d have to be blind not to realise that we had problems.  Look at you and Rain, a friendship that was stronger than diamonds is now fragile, like glass.”  
  
“Glad you didn’t say vibranium,” Rachel joked.  Steve’s mouth twitched but he didn’t laugh.  
  
“I’m serious.”  
  
“That’s why I’m joking.”    
  
Steve smiled at her and said, “I missed you.”

 

“I know. I’m one of a kind.”

 

“You can be as sarcastic as you want, but my sentiment is true.”

 

Rachel looked up at Steve with a serious expression, “Don’t doubt mine because I don’t always sound serious Steve.”

 

“I don’t, and I was joking.”

 

“You’re terrible at joking!” Rachel laughed.

 

Steve smiled at her, “But I got you to be serious for a second.”

 

“Touché,” Rachel giggled.

 

“I love you,” Steve said after a moment’s hesitation, feeling as though it was long overdue, but also an obvious thing by now.  Though pleased, Rachel looked at Steve with a hint of confusion.  
  
“I know, and I love you too,” she responded.  
  
“I was too afraid to tell you that last time and I’ve regretted it every day that we weren’t together,” Steve said, trying to convey how much it had been eating at him over the past year.  
  
Rachel looked at Steve with a mixture of adoration and understanding, “It’s okay Steve,” she said, intertwining their fingers, “I know why you couldn’t.”  
  
“Fear and cowardice aren’t good enough reasons,” Steve said, looking down at their intertwined hands.  
  
“Steve,” Rachel scolded, continuing only when he looked back up at her, “We both know that there were so many other reasons for you _not_ to say it.  You weren’t afraid,” she said as she leaned over and kissed him softly, “You were trying to save us both from misery.”  
  
“That didn’t work out all that well, did it?”  
  
“It was the right thing to do at the time; there was too much uncertainty.  I would call it being mature.”  
  
Steve smiled slightly, “There’s still a lot of uncertainty.”  
  
“No,” Rachel said softly, “I’m not making the same mistake twice.  You have to go back and I’m not going to live without you.”

 

Steve smiled, “Have I told you that I love you?”

 

“Not too recently to be considered redundant.”

 

“You’re very verbose.”

 

“I can actually do a lot without talking as well.  I’m _very_ talented,” Rachel smirked up at Steve.

 

“Oh really?” Steve asked, leaning closer to Rachel.

 

“Yes, would you like a demonstration?”

 

Steve kissed Rachel lightly, “Only if you _really_ want to,” continuing to be playful.

 

Rachel responded by letting go of Steve’s hand and wrapping both of her arms around him as best as she could with both of them facing the same direction and pulled Steve down to her level where she gave him a long, lingering kiss. When Rachel pulled away, she smiled at the expression on Steve’s face.  Steve turned to face Rachel and cupped her face in his hand, then leaned down and kissed her firmly and with a previously restrained urgency.

 

“Steve,” Rachel started, once he had pulled away, “Might I suggest that we move to this lovely bed, you know, for comfort?”

 

Steve chuckled, “That sounds like a fantastic idea.”

 

Rachel barely moved onto her side of the bed before Steve put his hands on Rachel’s hips and kissed her again.

 

“Impatient are we?”

 

“For you?  Yes.”

 

Rachel chuckled as she wrapped her arms around Steve’s neck, “I thought that patience was a virtue.”

 

Steve rolled his eyes, “Not in all situations.”

 

Rachel grinned mischievously at Steve before pulling him down so that she was lying on the bed and he was holding himself above her after barely having enough time to catch himself.

 

“Thanks for the warning,” Steve said sarcastically as Rachel giggled.

 

She kissed him, “Anytime.”

 

Steve shifted so that he could cup Rachel’s cheek with his hand, “You’re so beautiful,” he said, leaning in and kissing her, removing his hand as he did so.  As he tried to pull away, Rachel leaned up and kissed him again, bringing Steve back down to her when she laid her head back onto the bed.  Their kisses quickly started to grow in intensity and, eventually, Steve timidly ran his tongue along Rachel’s bottom lip causing her to gasp and part her lips.  Steve tentatively slid his tongue into Rachel’s mouth, receiving a shock of arousal when her tongue met his.  Feeling more confident, Steve more boldly started to explore Rachel’s mouth.

 

Rachel’s hands went to the bottom of Steve’s shirt and she started to tug it upwards, letting him know that she wanted it off.  Steve pulled away, frowning slightly and looking hesitant.  Rachel looked up at Steve and smiled reassuringly, “It’s okay; we don’t have to do,” she started as she leaned up and kissed him, “Anything other than this.”

 

“It not that I don’t want-”

 

“Trust me Steve, I know it’s not for lack of interest,” Rachel giggled.

 

Steve gave Rachel a small smile before running his hand down her side, causing her to shiver, “I’m just conflicted.”

 

“Whatever you want to do is fine with me,” Rachel replied, “And let me just stress _whatever_.”

 

Steve chuckled before kissing her again, this time moving his lips to her neck.  He worked his way down her neck, only to be stopped by her tee shirt.  He paused and looked at Rachel, debating what to do.

 

“We can talk through things first if you want,” Rachel offered, seeing his inner argument.

 

Steve smiled but moved so that he was lying beside her, “It’s not as if you don’t know what I’m going to say.  This wouldn’t be happening unless we were married in my time, but-”

 

“This isn’t your time and you’re here and I want you,” Rachel said quickly.

 

“You make a convincing argument,” Steve half joked.

 

“Yeah,” Rachel responded seriously, “But it’s up to you, my position has, hopefully, been made clear.”

 

“Crystal clear,” Steve agreed, leaning in to kiss Rae softly. Steve pulled away and looked at her and, upon seeing Rachel’s parted lips, blushing cheeks and widened eyes, made up his mind.  He saw that, for the moment, she was completely unguarded and open, something that he was both eager to see and explore.

 

Rachel, who saw Steve make his decision before he had truly realised it, leaned over to him and kissed him hard, her hands sliding down to the hem of his shirt. Steve smiled and, this time, moved to pull his shirt over his head. Rachel stared at Steve in awe, “Jesus,” she said breathlessly, causing Steve to laugh, knowing that she meant it as a compliment. He leaned over and kissed her again.

 

Rachel smiled when he pulled away and sat up, quickly pulling her shirt off before throwing it to the other side of the room.  It was Steve’s turn to stare in awe as she lay back down. 

 

“You’re so beautiful,” he said, watching her blush again before he leaned down and kissed her deeply then rolled them over so that she way lying on her back and Steve was perched above her.

 

Steve once again started to kiss his way down her throat, smiling when he kissed a spot that made her moan and committing it to memory.  His movements were slow and steady, though a little unsure, as he ran a hand down her side and finally back up to cup a breast.  He smiled when Rae gasped as he grazed a nipple.

 

“Steve,” she said in a higher pitched whine.  Rachel had originally intended to let him explore her as much as he desired, her patience was growing thin in the realization of her need for him.  Steve glanced up and as soon as he realised that she had said his name out of lust, he kissed her collar bone, moving down in a slightly quicker pace.

 

Rachel moaned when Steve’s tongue ran across her breast, aiding in bolstering his confidence and causing him to smile.  He slowly continued to kiss his way down her flat stomach and to the top of her shorts.  Steve looked back up, characteristically asking if Rachel was okay with him removing them, which caused Rachel to laugh and help him remove them, rather unceremoniously, and throw them on the floor.

 

“Of course they’re blue,” Steve chuckled while looking at Rachel’s boy shorts.

 

“You can get rid of those too,” she smiled.

 

“Yes ma’am,” he joked before sliding them off as well.

 

Rachel smiled as she lay back down; blushing at the look of adoration and lust that Steve was giving her.  He leaned back down and kissed her, trying to convey his feelings without words.  Steve cupped one of her breasts before sliding his hand down her stomach, smiling when he grazed a spot that made Rae giggle and squirm underneath him.

 

After a moment’s hesitation, Steve slid his hand between her legs.  He brushed his fingers over her clitoris, causing Rae to gasp and then moan when he repeated his motions.  Encouraged, Steve started to explore Rachel’s body with more confidence.  He slipped a finger into her wetness, reveling in the feeling of Rachel’s heat surrounding his finger.  Steve took his time, keeping his hand slow, steady and firm as he slipped another finger into her.  He enjoyed watching Rachel’s obvious desire growing as he worked his fingers in and out of her.

 

“Steve,” Rachel whined after a few minutes, writhing underneath his attentions.  She had felt the recognizable buildup of her orgasm and realised that if he didn’t stop, she’d quickly be over the edge.  Steve chuckled at what he thought was her obvious impatience and quickly placed a kiss on her lips.

 

“I need you,” she stated breathlessly, “Now.”

 

Steve moved away and quickly removed the remainder of his clothes.  Rachel watched with dilating pupils as Steve disrobed himself.  Her eyes appraised his body, eventually coming to rest on his erection, blushing and unconsciously parting her legs in anticipation.  Steve grinned sheepishly before leaning back down to kiss Rachel.  With Steve holding himself over her, Rachel could feel Steve’s hardness on her thigh, which caused her to moan lightly and part her legs further.

 

“Are you sure?” Steve asked Rachel once more, only succeeding in causing her to giggle.

 

“Yes,” she responded after her giggling had subsided.  Rachel wrapped a leg around Steve to emphasize her point.

 

Steve rolled his eyes at her before he kissed her.

 

“Steve,” Rachel said hoarsely once he pulled away.

 

Steve locked his eyes with Rachel before he slowly entered her.  Rachel arched her back and further parted her legs, while moaning Steve’s name once again. Rachel closed her eyes and covered her face as he pushed into her.  Once Steve was fully sheathed in Rachel’s snug warmth, Steve frowned.

 

“Rachel,” he said quietly, “Look at me.”

 

Rachel uncovered her face and opened her eyes.  Steve smiled and took her hand in his, intertwining their fingers and preventing Rachel from hiding herself again.

 

“I love you,” he said simply.

 

“I love you too,” Rachel returned.

 

Steve smiled and kissed her before, finally, pulling out and thrusting back into her.  Rachel moaned and her other hand went to Steve’s shoulder for support.  Steve moved slowly, wanting to feel everything that she had to offer him.  He gasped every time he felt her tighten around his shaft.

 

Rachel gripped his shoulder, meeting his hips as he quickened his pace, both of them taking short, hard breaths between every kiss.  Rae moaned Steve’s name as she felt herself getting closer to her orgasm.  Her breaths became even shorter as she arched her back and dug her nails into Steve’s skin.

 

“Steve,” Rachel nearly shouted as she reached her peak.  Steve kissed Rachel hard on the lips and moaned as he came shortly after she did.  He had just enough energy left to move over and collapse beside Rachel on the bed.

 

“So,” Rachel panted, looking over to Steve, “How’s it feel to not be a virgin anymore?” Her playful demeanor was back, both hiding her shock at having an orgasm during intercourse and letting Steve know that her guard was back up.

 

Steve rolled his eyes and turned to face Rachel, “Stop deflecting,” he ordered breathily.

 

“Fine,” she said turning to face him.

 

“You really are beautiful,” Steve said as he pulled her closer to him.

 

“If you want me to not deflect, you need to stop saying that.”

 

“Not going to happen,” Steve smirked.

 

Rachel kissed him on the cheek, “Well then, you’re beautiful too.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

“Steve, I love you.”

 

“Oh I know,” he said cheekily, “I’m one of a kind.”

 

“Oh shut up and go to sleep,” Rachel giggled, hitting him playfully.

 

“Yes ma’am.”


	11. Chapter 11

Raina woke up relatively early that morning; she had a mission to accomplish. After she managed to snake her way out of Loki’s sleeping grasp, Raina snuck her way next door into Gwen’s room. “Psssttt! Gwen, hey, hey, Gwen!” Raina whispered as she poked the shoulder of a sleeping Gwen.  
  
“Rain what do you want?” Gwen groaned, still mostly asleep.  
  
“You need to go grocery shopping.” Raina stated.  
  
“Why are you in here telling me this now?” Gwen sighed as she sat up in bed, rubbing sleep out from her eyes.  
  
“And take Bruce with you.” Raina added, ignoring Gwen’s inquiry. Raina back up from the bed as Gwen threw back the covers and stood up. “Bruce?! Wha- why?” Gwen stuttered, her face turning a shade of red. Raina gave her an evil grin.  
  
“Yeah, Bruce. 'Cus he went shopping with Rae first last time he was here. So I think it's only right that he goes again,” Raina half-lied. Gwen did not believe her, but went with it anyway.  
  
“Okay, fine. Now get out of my room you creeper,” Gwen told Raina as the younger woman disappeared out the window. “You're the reason why I lock my door!” Gwen yelled after her.  
  
Half an hour later, Gwen came down the stairs ready to leave. “Hey Bruce?” Gwen called from the living room.  
  
“Yeah Gwen?” He asked walking out of the kitchen.  
  
“Rain's announced that you will be coming with me to do grocery shopping today. Did she not tell you?” Gwen asked him as she was putting on her shoes.  
  
“No, but then again, that is something that Rain would do. Just give me a minute and I'll be ready.”  
  
“Sure thing.” Bruce left the room, returning with a hat, the one Rachel bought him the first time he was here. He quickly slipped on his shoes and the two then headed out the door.  
  
“So Gwen, how did you meet with Rachel and Rain?” Bruce finally spoke up after they had walked for some time in silence.  
  
“Well, when I am working, I’m a yoga instructor and a few years ago, Jessica wanted to take some yoga classes and that’s how Rae and I met.  She just happened to be up here when Jess first started to go and Michael couldn’t take her.  I met Rain a couple of weeks after that, she had decided to come with Rae to pick up Jess.  I wasn’t really sure about Rain back then, but then again, I’m still not sure about her now.”  Gwen laughed.

 

Bruce smiled and nodded, “Yeah, she’s a little harder to understand than Rachel.”

 

“Truer words have never been spoken.”

 

“So you’re a yoga instructor.  What’s that like?”

 

“Boring,” Gwen laughed, “But it’s good for my lifestyle, so I do it, and I do it well when I have to.”

 

“What type of lifestyle do you have?”

 

“A transient one.  I’m pretty much always on the move.”

 

“I know a little of what that’s like,” Bruce said, smiling to her.

 

“Oh yeah, I forgot.  So you guys are exactly like the ones we’ve watched?”

 

“So I’ve been told,” Bruce smiled, glancing over to Gwen, then, partially to get the attention of himself, he said, “You know why I’m used to it, why are you living that type of life?”

 

“I’m kind of terrible at managing my own life.  I can keep a job, I just forget to pay the bills and whatnot, so I’m used to getting kicked out of places.  Now I only travel with whatever fits in my car.”

 

Bruce smiled, “It’s a more relaxing reason than mine.”

 

“I’m not complaining about it,” Gwen said quickly, “I accepted that I was going to live this was a long time ago and I actually do like it.”

 

“I wasn’t saying you were,” Bruce laughed, “It’s just interesting for me to see someone who does it because they want to, not because they have to.”

 

Gwen looked up at Bruce, “Thanks.”

 

“No problem.  But what does your family think about it?”

 

“My parents have always been more uninvolved in my life and I was an only child, so they don’t really have an input in my life.”

 

Bruce nodded, but then realised that, logically, Gwen's next question would be about his family, which caused him to quickly ask, “So is that why you’re so independent?”

 

Gwen looked at him for a second, “I’m not sure.  I don’t really consider myself all that independent because I’m terrible with money.”

 

“Tons of people are terrible with their money.”

 

“Not Rachel.”

 

“Yes but you are not Rachel.”

 

“I used to want to be more like her.”

 

“Not now?”

 

“Not like I used to.”

 

“Why not?” Bruce asked.

 

“You know how when you first meet someone, you think they’re perfect, but then you get to know them and you start to see their flaws and you realise that they are actually a person?”

 

“Yes,” Bruce said, thinking that he knew where Gwen was going.

 

“Well, I kind of idolized Rae.  I mean, she was this kid, taking care of her younger siblings and not complaining once about it.  It’s probably a law that you should idolize someone like that.  Plus, she had basically taken Raina on as a third sibling to take care of.  She had basically created her own family and was managing well for her age, for anyone’s age really.  I thought she was perfect.  Even after we had gotten to know each other.  I mean, it probably didn’t help that every time I came into town, she would insist on meeting me and she basically incorporated me into her family as well and then there were a couple of times that she made me come over to make sure she knew I had a place to sleep,” Gwen paused taking a breath and realising that she was getting off topic.

 

“But?”

 

“I hadn’t ever realised, or been exposed to the fact that she really likes to shove her emotions down where no one can get to them.”

 

Bruce smiled, “No one’s perfect.”

 

“Yeah, but she goes through the trouble of making up and remembering half-truths for everyone so they feel like they know her.  I mean, when I came here this last time, she kept telling me that Raina had lost someone.  That’s it.  I know that she couldn’t tell me the whole truth at the time, but she never once mentioned that she had lost someone too.”

 

“She doesn’t like to show her pain, and you know that.  I think you think that you’re still feeling left out.”

 

“They’ve got an exclusive little club and there’s nothing I can do to get in.”

 

“You do know that it’s been decided that you’re coming with us, right?”

 

“How did you-“

 

“Rae had the same concerns.  You two are alike in that regard.”

 

Gwen smiled, “So tell me something about yourself then, you already seem to know so much about me.”

 

“Oh, didn’t you watch my movies?” Bruce joked.

 

“Think of it this way Mr. Scientist, we can see how accurate the movies are compared to your recollections.”

 

Bruce smiled appreciatively, “Good point.”

 

“Oh I know. My secret super power is that I’m great at making things sound logical.”

 

They continued talking all the way to the store, getting to know one another a little more, making Gwen start to feel better about the fact that she was sharing a house with comic book characters because she was starting to realise that they were real people too, not just characters.  They quickly got everything on the list that Gwen had found, assuming that Rain had written it, and got a cab back.

 

“Where have you been?” Rachel asked as soon as Gwen walked through the door.

 

“Uh, grocery shopping like Rain told me to do.”

 

“I just went grocery shopping, why would you need to do it like two days later?”

 

“I’m going to kill her,” Gwen said as she threw her bags on the kitchen table, “Where is she?”

 

“Hey Gwen.”

 

“Why the hell did you send me out on a shopping trip when it wasn’t needed?”

 

“But it _was_ ,” Rain insisted, “You got all the stuff that Rachel didn’t the other day.”

 

“That’s logical Gwen,” Rachel said as she put up the things that Bruce was handing to her.

 

Gwen eyed Rain for a moment, “Okay, fine. I over reacted a little bit.”

 

“Did you get the wine?”

 

“No,” Gwen said, “All you had was the word wine, you didn’t write down exactly what you wanted.”

 

“Damn it,” Raina said.

 

“Let me guess,” Rachel started, putting her hands on her hips, “You secretly sent Gwen out for booze.”

 

“You got me,” Rain said, immediately turning and running from Gwen.

 

“They’re children,” Rachel said disbelievingly as she watched Gwen chase Raina out of the back door.

 

“Should someone go after them?” Clint asked uncertainly.

 

“Did Gwen have a knife?”

 

“No.”

 

“Then we should be okay for a minute,” Rachel said, stepping forward so she could watch them out of the back door.

 

“Where is Rain?” Loki asked, coming down the stairs.

 

“It’s not supposed to rain today Loki,” Rachel smirked at him.

 

Loki rolled his eyes, “Will you ever tire of that joke?”

 

“Nope. In fact, I plan on using my dying breath to say that joke to you, just to annoy you.”

 

“There are better things that you could do with your- Is Rain being chased?”

 

“Yeah, why?”

 

“Why are you not stopping Gwen?”

 

“She doesn’t have a knife.”

 

“What has that got to do with anything?”

 

“She won’t kill Rain unless she’s got a knife.”

 

“Your logic is horrendous,” Loki said, glaring at her.

 

Rachel watched as Gwen tackled Raina to the ground, landing painfully on top of her.

 

“You should probably go separate them now,” Rachel said to Loki, who glanced at her before running out to get Rain.

 

“This is fun, I can get him to do anything if I say it’s for Raina,” Rachel said, causing Bruce to laugh.

 

“He’s not a dog,” Bruce chuckled.

 

“Yeah but he’s still a little bit of a jerk.”

 

“That’s true,” Clint agreed from the couch.

 

“Damn it, now he’s going to try and kill Gwen,” Rachel said before running out of the door, closely followed by Bruce. Though they had made no plans before they ran out, Bruce ran to pull Gwen away from Loki while Rachel ran in front of Loki to prevent him from attacking Gwen.

 

“Loki, back off,” Rachel said while Bruce attempted to get Gwen further away from Loki.

 

“Ugh, you’re such a child Rain.”

 

“So are you,” Rain smiled to Gwen.

 

Gwen pursed her lips and looked at Rain with angry eyes, then promptly started giggling, “You suck.”

 

Rain smiled as Rachel helped her up, “But you did get the milk right?”

 

Gwen rolled her eyes, “Of course.”

 

“Cereal for dinner?”

 

Rachel and Gwen laughed, “Sure kid,” Rachel responded.

 

+~*~+

Later in the day, after everyone had eaten dinner, Loki left the living room and went upstairs to his and Raina’s shared room; everyone else sat downstairs watching television. He was about to grab one of Raina’s Norse mythology books when Loki spotted a disc laying on top of the stack of books. As he picked it up, he noticed the title on the front of the case.

 

“Belly Dancing Finals?” Loki read aloud to himself as he raised an eyebrow.

 

“Loki where’d you go?” Raina’s voice floated from the hallway. The bedroom door opened up as she walked in.

 

“I believe I may have found something interesting of yours.” Loki smirked as he proudly held up the DVD.

 

“Where’d you find that?!” Raina lunged towards him in an attempt to grab it.

 

“I was just looking around. Now, I think I shall go watch it in the living room with the others.”

 

“You wouldn’t dare.”

 

“Would I?” Raina made another lunge, but failed as Loki shoved her aside and made a run to the living room.

 

“You ass!” She yelled after him. Raina quickly stood back up and chased Loki through the hallway and down the stairs.

 

“What are you two up to now?” Rachel questioned Loki as he reached the bottom of the stairs. Loki opened his mouth to answer but was stopped by Raina.

 

“I say thee nay!” Raina shouted as she jumped from the top of the stairs down to Loki, knocking them both to the ground, the DVD falling out of Loki’s hand and sliding down the stairs.

 

“What’s this?” Tony asked as he bent down to pick up the DVD from the floor, he had been the one told to investigate the noise.

 

“No!” Raina yelled in defeat. Tony walked back into the living room, completely ignoring Raina, and put the disc into the DVD player. Raina, who had quickly followed him, went to take it out but was stopped by Loki pulling her down onto his lap from his spot on the floor. Loki’s arms wrapped all the way around Raina’s torso to hold her against him.

 

“Sorry kid but this sounds too good to let go.” Tony shrugged. On the screen was Raina, standing in the front of the room, wearing a bikini top and a long skirt that were adorned by small coin-like objects. “Beautiful Liar” by Shakira and Beyonce began to play, with Raina dancing to it. The Avenger’s mouths dropped as they continued to watch the television.

 

“You have not gotten rid of that outfit by any chance have you?” Loki whispered softly into her ear as he rested his head onto her shoulder. Raina shuddered upon feeling his breath on her ear. As the song progressed Raina's movements got faster, her eyes closed as she continued to move her body to the song. By the time the song came to an end Raina was sitting on the floor, her skirt sprawled out around her as her chest moved up and down, trying to catch her breath.

 

“Belly dancing huh?” Tony asked with a raised eyebrow. Raina crossed her arms and looked away.

 

“And then she went and got a tattoo.” Rachel concluded.

 

“And it is a very lovely tattoo thank you very much.” Raina spoke as she held up her head, walking by the group.

 

“Do we ever get to see it?” Tony asked, raising an eyebrow. Loki sharply turned his head to glare at Tony.

 

“If you can ever get past her guard dog.” Clint laughed. Raina placed the DVD back into it's case, purposely swaying her hips. Loki stood from his spot on the floor as he rolled his eyes at her childishness.

 

“Next party we have, I say we have a dancing contest.” Tony was met with a few mutters of 'no' and some 'ughs' as well as 'fuck that' from Raina. “Well it would only be the girls dancing.” Tony shrugged, only to be smack by first Natasha, then Gwen, and finally Rachel, on the back of the head.

 

“I believe the group agrees otherwise.” Bruce chuckled as Tony rubbed his now sore head.

 

“You should know better by now Tony.” Clint shook his head, laughing slightly as well.

 

“Yes Stark, the ladies have made it very clear of what all they do not wish to do.” Loki smirked as he wrapped an arm around Raina's waist.

 

“Ugh, why are you all making fun of me at my expense?” Tony accused the group. Raina shrugged.

 

“Better you than me.”

 

“Is this still payback for you thinking I put the spider in your room last time?”

 

“Perhaps, perhaps not. Either way, I love causing others strife.” Raina jeered at the billionaire. “Now if you will all excuse us, I'm very tired of all this running about and need my twelve hours of sleep.” She waved them all off, pulling Loki along with her.

 

“Keep it down with the sex tonight Rain!” Tony yelled after the two. Rachel snorted, knowing Tony was joking, while Steve turned red; the others busted out laughing.

 

“No promises!” Raina yelled back down the stairs.

 


	12. Chapter 12

Rachel walked down the stairs and back towards the kitchen where she found Gwen and Raina  
in the kitchen, Raina was starting coffee while Gwen was standing in front of the fridge, looking for something for breakfast.

"Hey guys," Rachel said as she walked towards her friends.

"Hey," they both replied sleepily.

"What are we doing for breakfast Gwen?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know," Gwen whined.

"I think that we should have chinese."

"Rain, I'm pretty sure they're not open."

"But," Raina started.

"You can't argue with me if they aren't even open kid," Rachel laughed.

"Ugh, I don't wanna have to cook for all these people," Gwen complained as she started to get food out.

"It's called cereal and everyone is familiar with it."

"Even Loki?"

Rachel and Raina laughed, "They were here for a month," Rae explained, "They've had everything we usually buy many times over."

"A month?" Gwen asked.

"Well, more like six weeks."

"Holy shit, you guys did keep me out of the loop," Gwen said as she started looking for a bowl.

"Sorry," Rain said, putting her head down.

"But we couldn't risk anyone finding out," Rachel continued.

"And for the majority of the time," Rain finished, "You were in Vermont."

"You know, Tony's right, it's creepy when you two finish each other's sentences and talk together like that."

Rachel and Raina laughed in unison, "We try."

"Oh I bet you guys just practice saying things together to fuck with other people's minds.

"No," Rachel said, smiling.

"Not at all," Rain giggled.

"You guys," Gwen said laughing.

"Yay, coffee shall soon be upon us comrades!"

Rachel laughed, "Good, we're going to need it."

"Yep, all the food isn't going to make itself."

"What's gonna work?" Rain said, "Team work!"

Gwen and Rachel laughed.

"Well, let's get to it," Rachel said.

"I'll do the pancakes," Gwen volunteered.

"I've got bacon," Rain laughed.

"Ugh, but that's the easiest," Rachel whined, "I guess I've got the eggs then."

"Ooh, can we do liver mush?" Raina asked.

"Do we still have some in the freezer?"

"Duh," Rain said.

"Alright then, get it out to defrost."

"Rae, can we have waffles too?"

"Why not," Rachel shrugged.

"If she gets waffles and liver mush, I want sausages," Gwen said.

"Fine."

"Can we have biscuits and gravy too Rae."

"Okay, but that's it," Rachel said.

"Wait, no, if she gets that then I want hash browns too."

"Oh for God's sake," Rae said, rolling her eyes at the pair and going to the fridge for eggs.

"You know," Rachel said to Gwen, "You're supposed to be more mature than Rain."

"She brings out the immaturity in me," Gwen explained, "And can I have the hash browns?"

"Yes, but that's it. No more from either of you and you have to make the hash browns."

"What about French toast?" Rain asked.

"No- well, I do love French toast, and I haven't had it in a while."

"So, French toast too?"

"Yes, but it's for me so Gwen, you can't ask for any more shit."

"Agreed." Gwen said, laughing.

"So what all does that mean that we're making?" Rain asked.

"French toast, pancakes, waffles, toast, hash browns, eggs, bacon, liver mush, sausages and biscuits and gravy."

"Are you sure that's going to be enough for all of us?" Gwen laughed.

"If not, they're going to have to make their own food," Rachel said.

"Let's get to it," Rain said as she started to go for pans and various utensils.

"Hold on, we need to do this in an orderly way. Start with the pancakes, bacon, biscuits and hash browns first," Rachel ordered, making sure that they'd have everything done the way that she needed. As they went about making breakfast, Rachel kept telling the other two what to do, which was something that Raina was used to, but Gwen was not.

"Why can't you just trust that I know how to do this?" Gwen asked exasperatedly.

"Her OCD got worse after Steve left," Raina explained, "And she let her hair get wild."

Rachel looked over at Raina with shock, "What do you mean?"

"You really didn't notice?"

"It makes sense," Gwen said, "People with OCD feel out of control, and what could make you feel more out of control than when Steve left and Rain going through her depression with Loki gone, it's actually a surprise that you're still as relaxed as you are."

"Gee, thanks," Rachel frowned.

"But how did you not notice that your hair grew like two feet? Is that why you don't brush it? Because you didn't notice you had two extra feet?"

"I brush my hair," Rae said indignantly.

"Eh."

"Anyway, it's not your fault," Gwen said, "And it's better than doing what Rain did."

"I don't appreciate that."

"She's right," Rachel commented.

"It's doesn't make it appreciated."

"I don't like my mental illnesses pointed out either."

"Ha ha, I'm the perfect one," Gwen interjected immaturely.

"It's like she just gets more immature the longer she's around you."

"I'd like to think of it as rubbing off on her."

"You would," Rachel said.

"Talking about me like I'm not even here," Gwen mumbled.

"But you're supposed to be concentrating on eggs," Rachel said, "We don't want to distract you."

"You two have your own exclusive little club over there."

"We do, but in our defense, you already knew that," Rain smiled.

"Yeah, I did."

"What is all of this food?" Tony asked with shock.

"We couldn't decide what to cook."

"So you cooked everything?"

"Just about."

"Nice," Tony laughed.

"You wanna go round everyone up?"

"Sure. Eating is my second favourite activity."

"What's the first?" Gwen asked naively.

"Don't ask!" Rain and Rachel yelled.

"Don't answer that!" Rachel warned.

"Or I'll keep attacking you for the spider prank."

"I never did that!" Tony exclaimed exasperatedly.

"Just leave it," Rachel said, "She'll always believe it was you."

Tony rolled his eyes and walked away mumbling something that sounded vaguely of "Not fair."

Rachel laughed as Rain followed Tony out mentioning waking up Loki.

"Did you pull whatever prank that Rain's angry at Tony about?"

"Yep," Rachel smiled, "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go wake up Steve before Rain decides it's her job and somehow manages to accidentally kill him."

Rachel walked out of the kitchen and hurried up the stairs to beat Raina to her bedroom. When she got in view of the hall upstairs, she saw Tony knocking at her door. She smiled and walked up next to him, "I'll wake Steve."

Tony rolled his eyes and smirked, "I'm sure you will."

Rachel laughed as Tony walked back towards Natasha and Clint's room.

Rachel opened the door and found Steve lying on his side, having replaced her with one of her pillows, which caused Rachel to frown, wondering if he was still having nightmares. Rachel thought about the night that she first found out that Steve had post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Damn it Raina," Rachel said after she hit the floor, though she knew that her friend was not awake. Raina was sometimes a difficult person to sleep next to due to the fact that she could be restless in her sleep and knock the other person off the bed. Rachel had already been kneed in the back, punched in the shoulder and scratched on her legs before Rain had, quite literally, kicked her out of the bed. Rachel sighed, sitting up and looking over to the clock on Raina's bedside table and frowning because it read ten till four. Rachel stood up and looked back at the bed, Raina had taken the whole thing over and there was no place for Rachel anymore.

Rachel rolled her eyes before walking out of the room to look for another place to sleep for a couple more hours. She walked over to her room in hopes of finding another place to sleep. With little hope, she went to her room where she found Tony, she sighed, deciding that she'd rather sleep on the floor; she had hoped that someone else would be there so that she wouldn't have to worry about getting groped. Rae shook her head before walking to the stairs, knowing that Natasha would be in the other guest room, while Loki had the one next to Raina's room and she wasn't going to wake up an assassin or a petulant child.

Rae walked down the stairs quietly, passing the entertainment room, assuming that there would be no room in there for her and heading straight to the living room, where she hoped the couch would be empty. Rachel frowned when she saw that the couch was occupied, and glanced over to the loveseat, thinking that it would have to be her bed for the next two hours. As she walked closer, she recognised that it was Steve on the couch causing Rachel to have a small smile appear on her face until she realised that he was moving around in his sleep.

It took her a few moments to figure out that he was actually running in his sleep. Instinctively, Rachel reached out to shake Steve and wake him up, when she was quickly reminded that, though he wasn't a Super-Soldier in this reality, Steve was still a soldier with swift and potentially deadly reflexes. As soon as Rachel's hand had made contact with Steve's body, he had grabbed her wrist and twisted it, making Rachel think that her wrist was going to be broken. Rachel gasped out of shock, fear and pain and completely froze.

The second that Steve had grabbed her wrist, he had stopped running, and was now, seemingly, sleeping peacefully. Rachel stared down at him in wonder and confusion. She had no idea what he'd do when she tried to remove her hand, or even how he'd react to her trying to wake him and she didn't understand why he had just stopped moving. She stood there, stooped over, with Steve holding onto her wrist for a few minutes trying to decide what to do. Eventually, she got the courage to try and get her hand back, only to be pulled down to her knees when Steve pulled back.

"Damn it," Rachel mumbled to herself. Almost as soon as she thought about waking Steve up, she dismissed the idea, assuming that he would want to know why he had her wrist and then why she had tried to wake him up; not a conversation she thought they should have. Rachel sighed and looked over to the phone sitting in its cradle on the table next to the couch and got an idea. After a few tries, she got the phone and put it in Steve's other hand, then started to pull her wrist out of his grasp, not believing when he actually let go, causing her to grin and fist pump the air with her newly freed hand.

She looked back down at Steve and frowned; he had been having a nightmare and, due to the fact that he was running, she thought that it wasn't difficult to guess what he had been dreaming about. Rachel ran her fingers through her slightly tangled hair, loosening the knots as she did. She got up, picked up a pillow from the loveseat and put it in Steve's hand, taking the phone back. Rae put the phone back and walked into the kitchen, feeling too awake to go back to sleep, and looking at the clock on the wall, sighed, it was four thirty.

Rachel walked over to the coffee pot and began making a full pot, knowing that nearly everyone else would want some, then went and plopped down in her favourite chair in the kitchen, turning it slightly so that she could look at the couch that Steve was on. Rachel wondered how long Steve had been having nightmares and if he knew that he wasn't getting any decent sleep because of them. She couldn't help but frown as she thought of what Steve was going through, and the fact that he was not only going through it alone, but had the added strain of being in what could only be an alienating world in the sense that it was a different century and that he wasn't even in his version of reality. Rachel couldn't imagine the stress and isolation that he was feeling and it made her feel useless that she couldn't help him.

Throughout making coffee, Rachel had avoided looking at her wrist for fear of what she would see. Though she had learned plenty of ways of covering up bruises throughout her life, she wasn't particularly fond of doing it. It was summer, so she knew that if a bruise did start to form, it wouldn't be appropriate to wear long sleeves, but she had a rather large bracelet that would cover a potential bruise up and if all else failed, she had make up to turn to. Finally, Rachel took a deep breath and looked down at her right wrist, pleasantly surprised to see no discoloration on her skin. Her wrist had stopped throbbing a while ago, and though there was still a dull ache, Rachel smiled at the fact that she wasn't going to get a bruise.

Rachel shook her head, banishing the thoughts from her mind then walked into her room and, after closing the door, laid on the bed behind Steve.

"Steve," Rachel whispered, "Wake up."

"That's the last thing I want to do when you're whispering in my ear," Steve mumbled sleepily.

"I thought you'd prefer it to getting yelled at by Tony or attacked by Rain."

Steve turned over to face Rachel, "Of course I do," he said smiling at her, "I prefer you overall anyway."

Rachel smiled and kissed him, "Now I don't want to get out of bed."

Steve wrapped his arm around Rachel's waist and pulled her closer to him, "That can be arranged."

"Not with Raina in the house. We just spent the last hour on making food; she's going to want-"

As if on cue, Raina opened Rachel's door without knocking and yelled, "No sex for you! We're eating first."

Rachel rolled her eyes and laughed as Steve groaned and buried his face in the pillow.

"Just give us a minute."

"One minute?" Rain asked, raising her eyebrows, "That's quick."

Rachel threw one of her pillows at Raina, "Out," she said, giggling.

Raina laughed and closed the door, but not before saying, "But do hurry, the food's going to get cold."

As soon as the door closed, Rachel turned back to Steve, "So much for being woken up nicely."

Steve rolled his eyes, "It was nice until Rain."

"Most people say that," Rachel laughed, sitting up. Steve followed suit, but pulled Rachel back and kissed her on the cheek.

"Steve," Rachel groaned, half in lust and half in warning.

"I know, I know, food." Steve let Rachel go and she stood up. Rachel waited on Steve, who was getting dressed for the day before heading downstairs.

"You don't have to get dressed right now, you know," Rachel said, smiling up at Steve as he threw a t-shirt over his head. When he got the shirt over his head he sent Rachel a condescending look.

"Oh ha ha, I get it, I'm old-fashioned."

"I like old-fashioned," Rachel said, walking up to him and kissing him.

Steve smiled when Rachel pulled away, "Come on; let's go before Rain comes back with more jokes."

"She only makes them because she knows it'll make you blush," Rachel said as she opened the door.

"I know. I can't help it that I'm from a time when people didn't talk about it."

"I was also uncomfortable talking about sex in public, then I met Rain," Rachel smiled as they walked down the hall.

"That's nice to know," Steve said at they reached the top of the stairs.

"Besides, you haven't heard the worst of it yet."

"How can it get much worse?"

"Don't ever ask that question, especially not out loud."

Steve smiled as they reached the bottom of the stairs, "I'll keep that in mind."

"Please do, because she'll try to embarrass me too."

"That definitely took more than a minute," Rain laughed as soon as they entered the dining room, which caused Steve to blush and Rachel to roll her eyes as they took their seats.

"You were not kidding about the food," Bruce said as he entered the dining room a couple of seconds after Steve and Rae.

"Yeah, why is there so much?"

"We couldn't decide," Rain, Rae and Gwen said simultaneously.

"Not you too," Tony groaned.

"Yay! We can become a threesome," Gwen said excitedly, causing the entire group to chuckle.

"I didn't mean it like that you perverts!" Gwen blushed, "You all suck!" Her words only succeeded in making the group laugh more.

"I hate you all."

"No you don't," Rachel and Raina said through their giggling.

"How can you two still manage to be in unison?" Tony asked as his laughter died down.

"They practice," Gwen said.

"We're secretly the same person," Rain said.

"That's a creepy thought," Tony said.

"We try," Rae laughed.


	13. Chapter 13

The rest day had gone by quickly. Most of the house had gone to sleep, with the exception of Raina, Loki, Steve, Rachel, and Tony. They were watching some random indie movie that Raina had, yet again, stumbled upon.  
  
“I don’t get it. At all.” Tony said suddenly.  
  
“We know you’ve said that ten times already Tony.” Rachel growled, her eye twitching slightly.  
  
“Then why are we still watching it?” Steve asked, with an incredibly confused look on his face.  
  
“What’s hard to understand about it? In the ‘real world’ the girl and boy are sick. But when they sleep they go into the girl’s picture. She’s trying to convince herself that it isn’t real yet keeps adding additions to the picture for her and the boy. Simple.” Raina spoke up, completely enthralled in the film.  
  
“Yeah...I’m just going to go to bed.” Tony rose from his spot on one of the chairs and walked out of the room. Rachel looked over to the clock on the wall and gasped.  
  
“Good God it’s two in the morning, I’m heading off.” Rachel rose from the couch and started upstairs. Steve rose to follow her but was stopped by Raina grabbing onto his wrist.  
  
“Can I talk to you,” Raina started, “in private?” She looked over to Loki who had a confused, jealous look on his face. Raina rolled her eyes at him. “Chill out lover boy, I’ll be upstairs in a few minutes.”  
  
“Fine, but I shall be waiting.” Begrudgingly, Loki stood from the loveseat and went upstairs. Once Raina was completely sure that he had gone upstairs she pulled Steve into the entertainment room.  
  
“What is it you want to talk about Rain?” Steve asked as he watched Raina shut the door behind them. His response was a set of clothes being thrown into his face.  
  
“Throw em on, we’re goin’ clubbin’!” Raina told him excitedly as she threw off her own pajamas to reveal another outfit underneath: a golden spaghetti strap tank-top cut off at the bottom showing off her pale stomach as well as a green short school-girl type skirt with gold leggings underneath. Steve’s face immediately turned red.  
  
“You’re going...in that?!” Steve stuttered. Raina rolled her eyes at him.  
  
“Different world, remember? Now hurry before Loki or Rae come looking for us, I’ll be in the living room waiting.” And with that Steve was left alone with a set of odd looking clothes. Minutes later, Steve stepped into the living room.  
  
“How’s this?” He asked Raina.  
  
“Hmmm, almost...” Raina looked him over. She walked over to him and pulled his shirt up, and out of his pants. “Don’t tuck your shirt in. Unbutton it; I gave you a tank-top for underneath it for a reason. Now we’re good to go!” Raina pulled him to the door where she grabbed a leather jacket off the coat rack and threw it to him.  
  
“I don’t know about this Rain,” Steve said as he followed her down the street.  
  
“Don’t worry about it. Now, if anyone asks anything, you’re my sister’s boyfriend and it’s your birthday and we’re clubbing while my sister gets everything ready for your real party at home, got it?” Raina explained.  
  
“Uhh sure?” Minutes later the two arrived at an alleyway with a buff, tall man standing guard at an unmarked door.  
  
“Hey there Marcus! How’s it goin’?” Raina spoke casually to the guy.  
  
“If it isn’t Rainy Day, I haven’t seen you in a while. Thanks for, the uh, you know...” Marcus spoke up in a deep voice as he and Raina bumped fists.  
  
“Eh, anytime man.”  
  
“Who’s this guy you got with you tonight?” Marcus teased.  
  
“Ah buzz off that, he’s my sister’s boyfriend. I’m keeping him away from the house while she sets up party stuff.” Raina lied smoothly.  
  
“Well you’ve come to the right place then,” Marcus said as he opened the door for them. “Watch yourself tonight Rainy Day, there’s some real punk college kids in there.” he warned as the two walked in.  
  
“Ha! You know me, I can handle myself!” Raina shouted back.  
  
The two made their way down a flight of stairs, the music getting louder and louder the further down they went.  
  
“So what kind of place is this?” Steve asked, untrusting of Raina's plan.  
  
“A club, an exclusive club. Try not to stare at the topless chicks too much, they enjoy it; it's a universal sign that you’re interested. If you want a drink tell 'em you're with me and it'll be for free. Other than that stay with me, don't wander off. Aight?” Raina told him as they continued down the stairs.  
  
“Wait, topless women?! Rain-” Steve was cut off as Raina opened the door that lay at the bottom of the stairs, music spilling from within. The club was dark, with lights flashing bright, and packed with people. Raina grabbed onto Steve's wrist and pulled him into the middle of the throng of people. As soon as she released his wrist, Raina began to sway and dance to the music. Steve stood awkwardly for a few moments before Raina noticed he was not dancing.  
  
“Come on Steve! You just gotta' get into the music! Feel it flow through your body!” Raina shouted to him through the music. “Follow my lead!” She started to dance again, this time Raina held onto Steve's elbows, moving him as she moved. Finally, after a few seconds, Steve got the hang of it and started to dance on his own. Raina released his elbows and started to dance on her own again. This went on for hours more. They would dance, go for drinks, go back to dancing, and then some more drinks.  
  
They were dancing to a remixed Deadmou5 tune when a group of young college guys walked up to Raina, starring her body up and down. “Hey there girl, why don't you dance with us for a while? We could show you a good time if you lose the stiff.” One of them said to Raina.  
  
“Sorry but I'm here with my friend, plus, I’m already taken, for life.” She shrugged.  
  
“You sure babe? You don't know what you're missing.” Another of them said.  
  
“At least take this off, give us a show huh?” A third one told her as he tugged on the bottom of her shirt, trying to pull it off.  
  
“Hey! Buzz off jackass!” Raina shouted at them, swatting away the hand.  
  
“Leave her alone,” Steve said.  
  
“Wanna' go at it, loser?” The first guy, the leader taunted at Steve, stepping right in front of him.  
  
“It's not polite to fight in front of women.” Steve stated.  
  
“Then how about we take this outside?” The second guy said. The four guys wordlessly walked out of the club and into the alleyway. Raina followed behind them, itching to teach them a lesson as much as Steve was.  
  
“Rainy what's happening?” Marcus asked as the group stepped out into the alley.  
  
“Just a couple of college punks needing a lesson in manners.” She answered, glaring at the trio of punks.  
  
“Just say the word and I'll deal with them.” Marcus assured.  
  
“Don't worry about it, Steve and I can easily deal with them.” Raina smiled evilly.  
  
“Alright, which one of you punks want to learn a lesson first?”


	14. Chapter 14

"Ah, remind me to never do that again. Ow!" Raina groaned as she held onto the side of her head. When she felt something wet she pulled her hand down to see red on it. "I think my heads bleeding...I thought you were supposed to be a super soldier." Raina looked over to Steve walking beside her; he was holding onto his arm. Steve glanced over at her.

"Yeah, not in this reality. Besides, there were about 12 of them. You have a black eye." Steve returned.

"Rae's gonna kill me." Raina groaned. "We should've taken the cab Marcus offered us."

"I'm just glad he intervened when he did, I probably would have killed that kid." Steve said grimly.

"No you wouldn't have, you're better than that."

"Am I? How can you be sure? I mean, they were treating you like a, a..." Steve couldn't bring himself to say it.

"They were just a few drunk college kids. Their bark is always worse than their bite." Raina giggled. "Besides, you need to be saving that manliness for Rae, she deserves someone like you." Her voice grew soft at the end. The two stopped upon reaching the steps that lead to the front porch of their house. "Well, it was fun Steve. How about we go clean up?"

"Yeah, hopefully everyone's still asleep, for your sake mainly."

Raina opened the door and walked towards the downstairs bathroom, passing the living room where Rachel was sitting in one of the chairs, looking exhausted and glaring intently in their direction.

"Raina Constance Fox, where the hell have you been?" Rachel yelled, then, upon seeing her black eye, Rachel asked, "What the hell happened to you?"

Raina grimaced and said, "Oh, Steve and I just went out for a little bit." Rachel stood up and said, "Looks like you went to a club and got in a fight. Is that accurate?" Rachel asked sarcastically.

"Rae, I just thought that we could have some fu-"

"Fun," Rachel cut across, "Oh yeah, it would have been so much fun if someone had noticed Steve and recognised him-"

"They wouldn't have recognised him as Captain America, Rae," Raina commented sarcastically.

"No, they would have thought he was Chris Evans, which is far worse!"

"It wouldn't be that bad Rae."

"But you don't know that Rain," Rachel stressed, trying to make Raina understand why she was so upset.

"Dude, we've taken just about everyone else out; I think you just worry too much Rae."

Rachel put her hands on her hips and said, "Raina, you're missing the point, what you did was stupid and clearly dangerous. What the hell were you thinking? Loki comes into my room at three in the morning going 'where's Raina?' and I have to calm him down without even knowing if you're okay or where the hell you were and the fact that you drug Steve along with you. Why the hell did you think any of this was okay? We were worried and didn't know where you were. Why the fuck didn't you at least leave a note for someone? I thought that you were more mature than this." Rachel ended her rant, not by yelling, but by sounding disappointed in her friend.

"Oh well, I guess you thought wrong. Let me just save you the trouble of saying it: I'm such a fucking child," Raina said, imitating Rachel as she finished her sentence.

Steve, who had stayed quiet throughout their argument sensed that they were about to bypass just getting things off their chests and someone was about to say something that everyone would regret, so he quickly stepped in, "Rachel, I know you were upset, but we're back now and we're all tired, so how about you and I go upstairs and Raina can go tell Loki that she's back?"

Rachel looked over at Steve and sighed, "Steve, you don't understand-"

"Yeah, you can't begin to comprehend how angry she is when she isn't in control," Raina said snidely. Rachel looked back at Raina with a mixture of anger and fatigue.

"Fuck you Raina," Rachel said, earning looks of shock from both Steve and Rain.

"What?" Rain asked, not believing what she had heard.

"The entire time I've known you, I've only done things to try and help you. I'm fucking selfless; I let you be the child all day and night and what do you do? You get pissy because I tell you that you worried me and Loki while you were off getting into a fight! So you know what? I don't care anymore, do whatever the hell you see fit, just don't come looking to me to get you out of whatever shit you get yourself into."

"Fine," Raina said, crossing her arms, "I've always wanted to jump into the pool from the roof."

"Okay," Rachel said, "Have fun."

"That's it?" Raina asked, "You don't give up, so why don't you do us both a favor and stop pretending."

"I'm not pretending; I'm tired of being someone's mother. You wouldn't understand the stress of it," Rachel sneered.

"Because I know nothing of stress?"

"Yep." Raina glared at Rachel and said, "You're worse than my parents!" Raina then headed for the stairs and started running up them while Rachel yelled, "And you're the reason I'm never going to need kids; you won't grow up!"

Rachel sighed when she heard the door slam and she closed her eyes, forgetting that she had anyone near her until Steve quietly said her name. Rachel looked over at him with tired eyes.

"Mind telling me what you're really upset about?"

"Nope," Rachel said, moving to walk around Steve, but he caught her wrist.

"It wasn't a suggestion Rachel," he said gently.

Rachel sighed, "I'm really not feeling it Steve."

"Too bad," he smiled, pulling her back towards the couch. As they sat down, Rachel said, "You look ridiculous." Steve chuckled, "I didn't pick out the clothes, Raina did."

"Yeah, I kinda figured; I didn't buy anything like that when I went shopping for you guys."

"I like how you're trying to distract me, but I have to tell you; it's not going to work," Steve said, smiling at Rachel.

"I'm tired."

"You said that."

"She just does whatever she wants all day and then she gets mad at me for telling her that she's wrong. I know it's partially my fault, but she's not helping either. It's like you guys get here and she completely goes insane and I can't reign her in. I don't know what to do." Rachel sighed and ran her left hand through her hair.

Steve smiled, "The solution is simple and obvious, talk to Raina and I don't mean you two yell at each other. You two need to have a serious discussion about how you're both feeling, and that means that you need to listen to her, she's clearly got things that she needs to tell you. And you need to talk to her without patronizing her, she's your friend, but you're treating her like a child. You need to talk and listen as equals, because that's what you are, you're partners in crime."

Rachel smiled at Steve, "You're right."

"I know," Steve said as he bent down and kissed Rachel on the forehead. She smiled and tilted her head up so that she could meet his lips with hers. Rachel reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Steve responded by pulling her on his lap. Eventually, Rachel moved so that she was straddling Steve, his hands, seemingly automatic, went straight to her hips. The pair started kissing each other more lustfully and less comfortingly. Steve's hands ran along the hem of Rachel's shirt for a few moments before finally slipping underneath the hem, touching her bare back and causing her to gasp and Steve to pull away, looking up at her.

"Your hands are cold," she giggled.

"Oh, sorry," he said breathlessly

"It's fine," Rachel smiled, slowly moving her body back towards his. She hesitated for a few seconds, her lips only centimeters from his, building up the anticipation before she finally kissed him once again. Steve ran his hands along the length of her body, keeping the fabric between their skin for the time being.

"Oh, are you kidding me? You have a room."

Rachel and Steve pulled apart with shock, "What are you even doing up Tony? It's five in the morning?"

"Six," Tony corrected, rolling his eyes, "And I didn't realise that I couldn't leave my room whenever I wanted to."

Rachel sighed and rolled her eyes, "I didn't say that you couldn't leave your room, I just didn't expect you, or anyone else, to be up this early."

"Why?" Tony said, and then his face turned to one of knowing, "Do you guys just stay up all night so that you can have sex on a couch? Cuz that's a little weird."

Rachel and Steve both blushed profusely, "No Tony," Rachel said exasperatedly, "Raina stole Steve and then brought him back and they got into a fight and then we got into a fight and then-"

"Wait, who got into a fight?" Tony said, sitting down on the chair. Rachel moved so that she was sitting next to Steve rather than on him as he explained to Tony what had happened.

"Oh, that still doesn't explain why you were going to have sex on the couch, which is not cool by the way. We all share that couch"

"We weren't going to have sex," Steve said, a faint blush still on his face.

"On the couch," Rachel supplied.

Tony just rolled his eyes, "Sure you weren't."

"I honestly don't care if you believe us or not," Rachel said, standing up, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed."

Steve stood up too, "Goodnight Stark."

"Good morning guys."

Rachel rolled her eyes as she and Steve headed towards the stairs. They went to Rachel's bedroom, though Steve thought that she wanted to go to Raina's room. Rachel immediately threw herself into bed while Steve got out of the clothes that Raina had put him in. Eventually, he climbed into bed too, smiling as he heard Rachel snoring slightly.

Raina stormed into her room, slamming the door behind her and flopping down on the bed, screaming into her pillow. Truthfully, she was not that frustrated; Raina knew Rachel would react like that. Raina drug Steve to a club, how could Rae not be mad. Upon feeling someone else sit on the side of the bed, Raina rolled over onto her back to see them, only to be practically pounced on. Loki now straddled Raina's waist, he moved her hands to above her head and held them there.

"You know, I would rather you not going around dressed like this and showing off what belongs to me." Loki whispered to Raina as he bent his head down to hers.

"Yes well, we have this thing called free will; I can do what I want, who I want, and when I want." Raina spoke back softly; she knew how to push his buttons and did she ever enjoy making others mad.

"Is that so?"

"Yes, yes it is."

"I believe you need to be taught a lesson, my dear."

"Oh? And who's gonna teach me this 'lesson'? You, my king?"

"Keep talking like that and I might just-" Loki was cut off as Raina slammed her lips onto his. Distracted, Loki released Raina's hands, which immediately went into getting tangled in his long hair. Loki moved one hand to be entangled in Raina's hair; the other began to move under her shirt. Raina let out a moan as Loki grabbed onto one of her breasts and began to massage it.

"Loki!" Raina squealed.

"Yes Raina dear?" Loki muttered back against her neck.

"Stop teasing me or you'll spend the next week tied up to my bed where I'll be teasing you." To further prove her point, Raina's hands went to the top of the zipper on Loki's pants, running her finger in a circle.

"Very well then." Loki whispered before he all but ripped off Raina's shirt. Next went her bra as Loki threw it across the room to join her tank-top on the floor. His hands went to massaging her breasts as he dipped his head down to kiss at her neck, just below her ear. Raina let out a small gasp as she arched her back upwards, leaning more into him. Letting her hands snake their way under Loki's shirt, Raina pushed off his shirt. Raina's hands danced across his chest, rubbing over every inch she could reach.

Loki went to pull off Raina's skirt and leggings as she, in turn, went to shakily taking off Loki's pants. "Nervous my dear?" Loki asked mischievously. Raina chuckled.

"I can't help that I've never been with another man before." She smirked. Loki placed a kiss onto Raina's lips.

"Do not worry my lovely Rain; I will be as gentle as you wish me to." Loki kicked off his pants and boxers as he swiftly pulled off Raina's underwear. "Are you ready?" Raina nodded as she entangled her fingers into his hair. Loki's hands went to Raina's waist, throwing her legs around his own waist as he positioned himself at her entrance. Slowly, Loki began to push into her, stopping as she winced.

"I'm fine, don't worry 'bout me." Raina whispered. Loki proceeded and pushed himself all the way in. He remained still for a few moments more, allowing Raina to adjust. Seconds later, Raina nodded and, slowly, Loki began to move himself in and out of her. Raina let out a low moan as Loki leaned down to capture her lips. Raina began to move against him as his thrusts sped up.

"Quiet one, aren't you?" Loki whispered into Raina's ear, nipping at it, as she began to pant.

Raina half-chuckled, "Don't complain; it's one of the few times I'm actually quiet." Raina managed to say through all the ecstasy she was feeling. Suddenly, Raina felt herself being lifted up as Loki turned them around, with Raina straddling his waist above him. "Loki, what're you doin'?" Raina asked nervously.

"It is your first time so why don't you, as the saying goes, 'take the reins'." Loki smirked mischievously. Raina scoffed. Loki placed his hands onto her waist, moving her back and forth on top of him. Once Raina seemed to start moving on her own he let go, letting his hands travel to her breasts. Raina quickly sped up as she leaned back, bracing herself by grabbing onto his knees.

"By the gods Rain!" Loki gasped as he felt himself getting close. Raina let out a low growl-like sound as, she too, felt herself getting close. Loki's hands went back to Raina's waist, forcing her to move faster. "L-Loki!" Raina felt a wave of pleasure was over her as her whole body seemed to shudder. As Raina tightened around him, Loki came too. Still trying to catch her breath, Raina leaned forward, laying herself on Loki's chest, rising and falling as he tried to catch his breath as well.

Hours later Loki lay awake. Raina was lying with her head on Loki's chest, while he drew soft circles on her back. Every now and then, he would trace the runic tattoo on her lower back. Suddenly, Raina shifted slightly, her breathing pattern changing.

"Did I wake you?" Loki asked softly.

"Mmm it's fine. Why're you still awake?" She stretched an arm, leaving it lying across his bare chest.

"I just wanted to relish in the moment of having your wonderful body next to mine." Raina rolled her eyes. "Also, I am enjoying your lovely tattoo Rain," Loki smirked.

"Thanks, it was painful, but worth it. I probably should have waited longer than immediately after my belly dancing exams to get it though, might not have hurt as much."

"Those lessons have paid off incredibly."

"Have they now?"

"Oh yes, they have."

"Wait a minute, you're getting off of topic; why're you awake?" Raina asked as she snuggled up closer to Loki.

"I've merely been...thinking."

"Hm? 'bout what?"

"How things have changed around here. Before you used to do things because it was who you were, all those pranks and such. Now, you do them on purpose." Raina opened her mouth to comment, but was cut off my Loki speaking again. "And yes, I can tell the difference between your random madness and your madness with a purpose." Raina did not respond for several seconds.

"It's just that, nothing's the same around here anymore. Rachel isn't Rachel. I've been trying to fix her it's just..." Raina trailed off, suddenly getting an idea. "You know what, never mind. I've got it all figured out. I'll fix everything back to the way it used to be."

"Fix it? How?" Loki asked suspiciously.

"Shhhhh, don't question it." Raina whispered as she placed her finger onto Loki's lips, silencing him. "It's sleep time, so sleep. Everything will be better soon."


	15. Chapter 15

Everyone woke up at different time, but once they were all awake, they all gathered in the kitchen where Bruce and Rachel had already made breakfast.  There was an uncomfortable feeling in the group, they had all been informed of what had happened the night before and were seeing its effects today.  It was upsetting for them to watch Raina constantly pacing the entire house and Rachel’s blatant refusal to acknowledge her friend.

 

The coldness from Rachel lasted throughout the morning and it was only in the afternoon when Loki finally got Raina to stop pacing and sit in the living room with everyone else, where she took the remote from Tony and turned the TV to the weather channel, much to everyone’s disappointment.  When Tony and Clint started complaining, Raina looked over to Rachel, hoping to have Rachel tell her off, but Rachel just continued typing on her laptop. So for the next few hours, Raina stared at Rachel, which made everyone except Rachel feel more uncomfortable.  
  
“Hey Rae, can you help me with something?”  Rachel, apparently deciding to stop the silent treatment, looked up from the laptop. “What?”  
  
“Can you help me with something?”  
  
“I heard you, what do you want me to help you with?”  
  
“Something outside.”  Rachel looked at Raina with confusion and suspicion, “Yeah, okay,” she said after a few seconds, standing up as she spoke.  
  
“Where are you going?”  Gwen, Loki and Steve asked at the same time.  
  
“Just outside, no big deal,” Rain gave them all a genuine smile, which did nothing to calm them.  Raina then took Rachel’s hand and led her outside.  What they couldn’t see was her take Gwen’s car keys from the bowl in the hall.  As Rachel followed Raina outside, she asked, “Why are we even going outside? You don’t like outside.”  
  
“I do for right now, and I need you to help me get something in Gwen’s car; I’ve got something for her to show you that I am responsible and not a child.”  

 

Rachel raised an eyebrow, “Oh really, what is it?”  
  
“A new stereo, she said her last one broke.”  
  
“That’s thoughtful of you,” Rachel said skeptically as they reached the car, “But where is it?”  
  
“I already put it in the car; I didn’t want her to find out, and I’ve got the tools as well as Loki’s promise that no one will come out of the house to check on us.”  

 

Rachel nodded appreciatively, “Well, you thought ahead, I’ll give you that,” she said as she sat down in the passenger’s seat in order to reach the stereo.  
  
“I know.”  
  
“Does anyone else have a bad feeling about this?” Bruce asked as soon as the front door closed.  
  
“No, Raina’s the most responsible and trustworthy person I know,” Tony said sarcastically.  
  
“Maybe we should just trust her,” Gwen interjected earnestly.  
  
“Are you high? You can’t trust Raina,” Clint said.  
  
“I do not want to agree with you, but last night she mentioned something about ‘drastic measures’ to get Rachel to forgive her.”  Steve jumped up from his spot and ran to the door, closely followed by everyone, but they were too late; they saw Raina slam the passenger side door and then run around to the driver’s side and get in.  
  
“What is she going to do with my car?”  
  
“Didn’t she wreck the last car that she drove?”  
  
“Not helping Tony,” Natasha chastised as the car started.  Steve and Loki immediately started running to the car, in hopes of stopping whatever plan Raina had before it started, but she peeled out before they could reach the car, driving it to the end of the street.  
  
“What exactly did she say she was going to do?” Steve asked Loki urgently.  
  
“She didn’t give me the details to her plan!” Loki said with exasperation in his voice.  
  
“Guys, there’s nothing we can do now, she’s-” Gwen was cut off by her car rumbling back down the street, which caused them all to sigh with relief until the car barreled past the house and went into the yard.  
  
“What are you doing?” Shrieked Gwen. as the car passed by them, they could see Rachel screaming at Raina.  Everyone ran through the house and to the back door, where they caught a glimpse of the car heading for the wooded area.  
  
“Oh my God, where the hell is she going?”  Gwen asked to no one.  
  
“There’s a river in there,” Bruce said.  They all looked at him and then jumped off of the back porch and ran after the car.  
  
“Raina! You can’t drive a fucking car through the woods!  You shouldn’t have even driven it through the yard!”  Rachel screamed at her friend.  Raina said nothing, but kept driving towards the woods. Rachel stared at Raina as they breached the woods.  
  
“Where are you taking us?”  When she got no response, Rachel reached for the wheel.  Raina only swerved the car so that Rachel was thrown away from Raina.  
  
“You’re going to kill us!”  Rachel screamed as Raina immediately swerved again to avoid a tree.  “How is there even enough room to fit a car?”  Rachel asked aloud.  Despite herself, Rachel looked over at Raina, she was getting concerned with the fact that Rain was refusing to answer her.  When Rachel saw the edge of the clearing, she knew exactly what Raina was going to do.  
  
“Rain.  I get your point.  You can stop now,” Rachel said seriously, but then she unbuckled both of their seat belts and rolled down her window, knowing that Raina wasn’t going to stop.  
  
“Rain, please,” Rachel begged, close to tears, she was imagining that this was almost the exact scene that her siblings had seen before they died.  “At least roll down your window,” Rachel pleaded as they hit the clearing, with the river only fifty feet away.  
  
“Raina!” Rachel screamed as Rain put her foot to the floor with the accelerator.  Because she had taken off her seat belt and didn’t have a strong grip on the car door, Rachel was thrown forward with the impact of the car into the river.  She hit her head on the windshield. Rachel blinked as the water came flooding into the car.  She looked over to Raina, who seemed to be unconscious.    
  
“Oh, of course,” Rachel said sarcastically.  Rachel tried opening her door, but it was stuck, she struggled with it for a few seconds before giving up because the water level had reached her waist.  She had no idea how deep the river was at this part, but she was willing to believe that it was deep enough to submerge the car and drown them if they didn’t get out.  Rachel yelled at Rain a few times to try and wake her up.  Knowing she didn’t have much more time, Rachel made a plan.  
  
Rachel pulled herself out of the car and kept a tight grip on the door, which is the only reason that she didn’t get pulled downstream.  She realized that a boulder was the reason that she couldn’t open the car door, and she used it as a stabilizer as she pulled herself back down to the window and reached for Raina’s hand.  Rachel had to put half of her body back into the car before she could finally reach Raina’s hand. It took seconds for the water level to be high enough for Rachel to easily pull Raina out.  Rachel was just wondering how she was going to get them back to shore when she heard her and Raina’s names being yelled.  She turned her head and saw everyone start to run into the water.  
  
“Don’t!” She yelled at them, “The current-” Rachel was cut off by a surge of water.  Rachel started thinking that she might have a concussion because she was losing the ability to think clearly.  She held onto Raina until she felt hands pulling her hand from Raina’s.  Rachel didn’t even bother fighting because she knew that it was Steve and Loki if not Bruce and Clint as well.  Bruce and Steve pulled Rachel to shore while Clint and Loki brought Raina.  As soon as they got the shore, Rachel looked for Raina, who was only a few feet away.  Rachel crawled over to her friend and as soon as she saw that Rain was alert and breathing, she started screaming, “Are you fucking insane?  You could have killed us!”  Raina sat up and beamed, “Don’t we all need a little adventure in our lives?  And besides, it was the only way.”  
  
“I can think of about a hundred ways to make a point that _don’t_ involve driving someone else’s car into a goddamn river!  This is why you don’t get to drive.  You’re completely reckless!  What the _hell_ were you thinking!?”  
  
Raina smiled and said, “I’m glad you’re back Rae.”  Rachel’s eyes burned with a fury that made everyone except Raina move back.  Rachel slapped Raina hard and stood up.  
  
“If I hadn’t just saved your life, I’d kill you,” Rachel said, offering the same hand that she slapped Raina with to help her up.  Raina took her hand and stood up as well.  Rain hugged Rachel tightly and when they pulled apart, Rain said, “I was never unconscious,” and took off running.  
  
+~*~+  
  
“Ow! That hurts,” Rachel whined as Bruce put alcohol on Rachel’s cut. They had walked back and Bruce made Rachel and Raina wait before taking a shower, but just as that wait period had ended, Steve had come downstairs from changing and saw that Rachel’s head was bleeding, so while the downstairs bathroom was being occupied, Bruce tended to Rachel’s wound in the kitchen.  
  
“Do you have a headache?”  He asked, ignoring the comment.  
  
“I don’t think so.”  
  
“You could have a concussion.  I don’t think-”  
  
“No, I don’t have a concussion.  I know what a concussion feels like, and it’s not this.”  Bruce nodded, though he wasn’t convinced, “But can you do me a favor and not sleep for the next twenty-four hours?”  
  
“How about twelve unless I get a headache?”  
  
“And we can wake you up every hour.”  
  
“Every two hours.”  
  
“Deal,” Bruce said as he put a bandage on Rachel’s head.  The wound itself wasn’t that deep.  
  
“Thanks Bruce,” She said, “Now I’m going to go upstairs and kick anyone in my shower out.”  
  
Bruce laughed, “Okay.  Just don’t go to sleep.”  
  
“I won’t; I promise.”  
  
Rachel walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs to her room.  She was pleased to see that no one was in her shower.  She stripped from her soggy clothes and stepped into the shower, turning on nothing but heat.  Rachel washed her hair and body.  When she got out, she dried and then got dressed. She sighed, not looking forward to the two hours it was going to take to straighten her hair. For time saving purposes, she decided to use her wet-to-dry straightener.  Rachel sat on the counter in the bathroom with the overhead fan running as she removed the curls from her hair.    
  
Once she finished, Rachel got off the counter and looked at herself in the mirror. She realised that her hair was even longer when it was perfectly straight, and she understood what Raina had meant about not taking care of herself, so she found her expensive and professional hair-cutting scissors and set to work.  As she hacked at the bulk of her hair, she threw it in the trashcan, which she had moved next to her.  Rachel cut her hair so that it was a little shorter than halfway down her back and then added layers on the sides near her face to make her bangs curl around her face.  When she thought that it was enough, she brushed her hair, parting it on the right to create bangs that went across her face, then she shook her head and took a step back and looked in the mirror.  Rachel smiled at her reflection.  
  
There was a knock on the door and Rachel heard Steve calling her name.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Are you okay?  You’ve been in there a few hours.”  
  
“Yeah.” Steve opened the door and his mouth dropped when he saw her hair.  
  
“You cut it all off,” He said in shock.  
  
“Not all of it,” Rachel laughed, “I just took it down to a manageable length,”  
  
“I can see that.”  Rachel smiled at him, “How does it look?”  
  
“Different,” Steve said, then added, “A good different.”  Rachel laughed, “Good answer.”  
  
“Thanks,” Steve said, walking forward and kissing Rachel, “You look beautiful.”  
  
“I try,” She joked, then leaned up and kissed him again.  When they pulled apart, Steve looked at Rachel, “You haven’t talked to Raina yet, have you?”  
  
“No,” Rachel answered as she looked down.  
  
“Are you going to do it soon?  She’s sitting in the kitchen petting a plastic toy and she won’t even answer Loki when he tries to talk to her; it’s worrying all of us.”  
  
Rachel giggled, “Is it Godzilla?”  
  
“That’s what Tony said it was.”  
  
“Okay,” Rachel said, “I’ll get right on it.”  Rachel led the way out of the room and all the way to the kitchen, where Steve let her go in by herself to give them some privacy.  
  
“Hey Rain.”  Rachel said as she made her way over to the table and sat down.  She watched Raina stroked her plastic Godzilla toy.  
  
“I see you’ve got your security blanket, I thought we burned that,” Rachel joked.  

 

Raina ignored the jab and said, “I see you chopped off your hair.”  
  
“Yeah, well, it was in the way.”  
  
“You shouldn’t have let it get that long in the first place.”  

 

Rachel rolled her eyes, “You shouldn’t have crashed Gwen’s car.”  
  
“Yeah, well, nothing else would get your attention.”  
  
“Oh, because _crashing a car_ is the appropriate way to get someone’s attention,” Rachel said sarcastically.  
  
“It _did_ work, so…” Raina trailed off.  

 

Rachel rolled her eyes, “There are other ways to get someone’s attention without causing thousands of dollars’ worth of damage.”  
  
“It’s not like I can’t pay for it.”  
  
“Once again, and always, that’s not the point Rain.”  
  
“That’s what you always say Rachel, why don’t you try and come up with something new, or is that too exhausting for you too?”  
  
“What the fuck is your problem?” Rachel asked, angered at Raina’s jab at her actions after her siblings had been murdered.  
  
“How about the fact that you disappeared on me, for a year.  For over a year.”  
  
“Rain,” Rachel said, her anger having been replaced with confusion, “What are you talking about?”  
  
“You stopped being you,” Raina said, sounding more childlike and less childish, “You stopped telling me what to do and you let me do whatever I wanted.  You know that’s not good for me.  You let me get a tattoo for Odin’s sake!”  
  
Raina’s last sentence prompted Tony to look over at Loki and ask him if he knew exactly where Raina’s tattoo was, earning himself a glare from Loki and everyone else to tell him to shut up so that they could continue listening in.  
  
“But-”  
  
“No Rae.  You might have physically been there, but _my_ Rachel wasn’t there.   _My_ Rachel wouldn’t let me get a tattoo, _my_ Rachel wouldn’t have let me get away with stealing a cop’s gun or-”  
  
“Wait, what?  When did you steal a gun?”  
  
“That’s my point Rae!  You didn’t even know!”  
  
“When did you do that though? We really should get rid of it.  We could get into a lot of trouble over that.”  
  
“Rae.”  
  
Rachel shook her head, “I told you the tattoo was a bad idea and that it would hurt.  I warned you.”  
  
“But you let me do it anyway.  You just let me drive a car into the river.”  
  
“I didn’t actually let you do that; you kinda kidnapped me.”  
  
“Rae, you weren’t-”  
  
“What was I supposed to do Raina?  Pretend like nothing had happened?  Pretend that you hadn’t had your _heart_ ripped out of your chest?  Please, enlighten me as to what you would have done, were you in my position.”  
  
“I would have cried with you; told you that it was going to be okay even when I didn’t believe it myself.  Not make you feel like you were the only one affected.  You’re my best family and you made me feel isolated.”  
  
Rachel was silent for a moment, “I’m sorry Raina, I don’t know how to fix broken hearts.  The first time you smiled after Loki left was when you were shooting off fireworks for three hours the day you burned part of the house down.  That was the first time in three months that you had looked like you were going to be okay.  And I will always do what I can to make you happy.”  
  
“But you didn’t help me how I needed you to.”  
  
“I’m sorry,” Rachel repeated earnestly, “You want me to fix your broken arm, help you get over a cold, bail you out of jail or laugh with you after we’ve run away from the cops, fine, I can do that.  But I can’t tell you how to feel better when the only person you can ever love has to leave you.  I don’t know how to do that.”  
  
“You’re supposed to stay with me and lie to me and tell me it’s going to get better.  And for fuck’s sake, you could’ve stopped being stoic for once in your life!  I cried for months and you sat there and hugged me and never said anything and I never once saw you show any type of emotion.  Do you know how crazy that made me feel?”  
  
“Rain, one of us had to be there for the other.”  
  
“There’s _two_ of us; I could’ve been there for you if you had let me.”  
  
Rachel frowned, “I’m sorry Raina.  I didn’t know.”  
  
“I know, but you should see it from my point of view, the only time you cried was when Jess and Dom died and that was a single tear for each of them and then you punched the pastor in the face.”  
  
“He deserved it.”  
  
“You’re missing the point, for once, you didn’t once even mention that you missed Steve, or anyone, in the entire year that they were gone.  And you let me cry over Loki for months.”  
  
“Raina-”  
  
“Yeah yeah, I know, you think crying is a weakness because of Michael.  But I’m not him and I definitely don’t think like he does.  He didn’t want you to be his family.  I’m proud to have you as my family.”

 

Rachel sighed, “Rain, you’re my best family too, but you didn’t handle things well either.”

 

“Because my support system disappeared on me.  
  
Rachel only sighed, “You still didn’t have to drive Gwen’s car into the river.  You could’ve just talked to me.  That’s how partnerships work, it’s a little thing called communication.”  
  
“Yeah I know, but-”  
  
“And since you just admitted to wanting me to control your life, then you need to go apologise to Gwen and call the insurance company.”  
  
“What!? Why do I have to call them?  I hate calling on the phone to people!”  
  
“It’s called a punishment Raina, I know you’re familiar with the term,” Rachel said, smirking at Raina.  
  
“Please don’t make me call-”  
  
“Call them,” Rachel said, all playfulness gone, “We need that car out of the water as soon as possible.”  
  
Raina sighed as Rachel handed her the phone, “Still glad to have me back?”  Rachel asked, a little unsure.  
  
“Always,” Raina said, taking the phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just quickly want to say thanks you for the kudos.


	16. Chapter 16

 

Loki had a very rude awakening in the morning. Raina had climbed up onto her dresser and jumped down onto the bed, causing Loki to be propelled through the air and land on the floor with a loud ‘thud’. Loki groaned as he used the bed for leverage to pick himself up off of the ground. He managed to get into a sitting position when he looked over at Raina, still jumping up and down on the bed.  
  
“Raina! By Odin’s beard what do you think you are doing?!”  
  
“‘Tis the day before All Hallows Eve my dear; Samhain!” Raina giggled back, finally plopping herself down into a sitting position on the bed just as Loki stood up.  
  
“Was that _really_ necessary then?” He asked her, rubbing his now sore head.  
  
“Isn’t everything I do necessary? At least, for me I mean. Anywho,” Raina stood up from the bed, “I am going to go shopping for alcohol for tomorrow’s Hallow’s Eve party. So if you’ll excuse me, I need to shower.” Raina said as she locked herself inside her bathroom. Loki lay back down on the bed, sighing as he watched her nearly skip into the bathroom. Several minutes later Loki heard the water shut off and the shuffling around of clothes. Nothing could have prepared him for Raina’s still dripping wet, but clothed, form pouncing on him.  
  
“Why must you abuse me so?” Loki asked her as he wrapped his arms around her waist.  
  
“Because I do what I want. Now get up, it's your turn.” Raina told him.  
  
“My turn for what?” Loki inquired, one eyebrow raised.  
  
“To get ready of course! You are going to go shopping with me today, after all.” She grinned mischievously.  
  
“I thought you said I was too recognizable?”  
  
“Don't worry about that; I have a lovely disguise for you.”  
  
+~*~+  
  
“And a lil' eye liner here. Some more over here...There! All done!” Raina exclaimed as she stood back to look at her masterpiece. Loki was now dressed in a pair of black Tripp pants, a black Slipknot T-shirt, dark eyeliner, and a fedora to match it all. His hair had also been washed, _thoroughly_ , as well as straightened.  
  
“Raina...I look silly.” Loki was not in the least bit amused.  
  
“Nonsense! Let's go show everyone downstairs.”  
  
The rest of the residents were gathered downstairs in the living room watching television when Raina came bounding down the steps.  
  
“Ladies and gentlemen! Introducing Loki in disguise!” Raina announced. Loki came walking down the steps, his arms crossed; he was highly displeased. Tony and Steve had been drinking/eating and promptly began to choke. Clint and Bruce snorted. Gwen and Natasha both held looks of bewilderment. Rachel was not amused.  
  
“No.” Rachel outright said.  
  
“What?! Why not?!” No one would ever recognize him!” Raina protested.  
  
“No, it'll bring even more attention. Go back and change it. Now!” Rachel demanded as she pointed to the stairs. Raina pouted, but turned and went back up the stairs, pulling Loki with her.  
  
“Okay then...” Raina muttered upon re-entering her bedroom. “What else is there in here?” Throwing open her closet doors, Raina began tossing random articles of clothing out of her closet and onto her bed. “Aha! Put these on.” She threw Loki a pair of green cargo pants and a black turtleneck sweater.  
  
“Somewhat more subtle.” Loki chided as he changed clothes. Raina sat down on the bed and watched him. Loki glanced over at her. “Stop staring at me with that look on your face Rain!”  
  
“I just wanted to watch.” She giggled. Once he had changed, Rain stood up from the bed. “Now, put on this fedora.” She handed him a dark brown fedora with a golden band on it.  
  
“Well?” Loki spread his arms wide. Raina stood in thought, staring.  
  
“Hmmm, I do have to admit, you look much more, what's the word? Oh yeah, ravishing.” Raina grinned as she stood and leaned into Loki's embrace, leaning upwards and capturing his lips in a kiss. Loki immediately responded, wrapping his arms around her waist. This went on for several seconds more before Raina attempted to stop. “Mmmm, Loki...”  
  
“Hmm?” He continued to kiss her.  
  
“We have to go shopping, remember?” Raina finally managed to pull away, reluctantly.  
  
“Fine, my dear Rain.” Loki sighed. The two made their way back down stairs.  
  
“How's this?” Raina asked Rachel once they got back down stairs.  
  
“Better...”  
  
“I'm not changing him, he looks just fine this way.” Raina stated.  
  
“I told you it was better, that means you can go now.” Rachel waved the two away.  
  
“Are you sure those two should be going out, alone?” Steve asked her.  
  
“Yeah, I mean, who's going to uh restrict her from impulse buying or something?” Tony added.  
  
“I'm sure _Loki_ is responsible enough to make sure Rain behaves.” Rachel stared at Loki as she spoke.  
  
“Yes yes...” Loki sighed.  
  
“Enough talk! I need booze!” Raina grabbed Loki's arm and quickly left the house.  
  
“What did we just unleash on the world?” Clint muttered.  
  
+~*~+  
  
“So I know this awesome store that will sell me alcohol for free! They have a ton of brands, including that one we had, but it's much better than the supermarket's brand.” The two walked quickly down the street, hand in hand.  
  
“The Trickster?”  
  
“Yep! Ah, here it is!”  
  
“Well if it isn't lil' miss Rain Cloud! Long time no see mon!” The dark-skinned man behind the counter said as soon as the couple walked into the store.  
  
“Ja'Qe my man! How's the booze business been?” Raina beamed at him.  
  
“Is goin, always goin. Who's dis young mon ja go widja?”  
  
“This, Ja'Qe, is my boyfriend, Thomas.” Raina said as she patted on Loki's chest.  
  
“Pleasure meeting a friend of my dear Rain’s” Loki smiled at him.  
  
“I like dis one. Try an keep im ey?” Ja'Qe laughed.  
  
“Yeah yeah. Anyways, I'm in need of some top notch quality booze. Know where I can get some?”  
  
“Of course Rain Cloud. It's in da back, watch the counter for me.” Ja'Qe went through a door at the back of the store.  
  
“Rain Cloud?” Loki asked as soon as the door shut.  
  
“All of my clients have different nicknames for me.” Raina explained.  
  
“Clients? For what?” Loki did not get an answer for as soon as he finished talking Ja'Qe came back through the door carrying five boxes.  
  
“Here ye go mon. Try not to drink it all at once ey?” Ja'Qe handed two boxes to Raina and the other three to Loki.  
  
“Ha! You know me!” Raina and Loki started to turn to leave. “Thanks again Ja'Qe!”  
  
“Ah don worry bout it mon. I owe you big time Rain Cloud! It was good getting ta meet ja Thomas, take good care of mah Rain Cloud now jou 'ere?”  
  
“I can assure you that she is in good hands.” The two walked out of the store and hailed a taxi back home.  
  
“So what is it that you do for these ‘clients’ of yours?” Loki asked her as they drove in the taxi.  
  
“Well, since I seem to have some sort of talent with meeting ‘broken’ people. Ja’Qe used to sell drugs on the street corner. He ran into me one day when he was running from the cops. The officers asked me where he was, but I told them I didn’t know. Ja’Qe was so thankful that he made it his job to do better and be better. So I helped him open up a liquor store that sells the best imported and USA brewed alcohol.” Raina explained.  
  
“Since when were you a humanitarian?”  
  
“Well, I guess ever since Rachel _changed_ and stopped being her usual mothering self, I guess I took in that aspect of her personality that she stopped using. It’s actually one of my bad habits, you could say.” Raina’s voice went quiet towards the end as a few of her sad memories began to pop up in her mind.  
  
“Rain...everything is going to be fine from now on, I promise you that.” Loki spoke as he placed his hand onto hers. Twisting her hand Raina entwined her fingers with his.  
  
“I know love, I know.” The cab stopped as it had arrived at their home. The two got out of the cab, Raina paid the cab fare. Grabbing the boxes of wine they headed inside.


	17. Chapter 17

Raina woke and was immediately aware of two things: Loki still smelled amazingly minty and today was her holiday, the day of Halloween. Her eyes fluttered open as a large, wicked smirk graced her face. “Loki, Loki, Loki, Loki, Loki,” Raina began to repeat his name over and over while gently and quickly shaking his torso, “Loki, Loki, Loki, Loki-”  
  
“What?” Loki groaned as he begrudgingly managed to open his eyes.  
  
“Guess what day it is?” She asked sweetly, managing to calm down slightly.  
  
“No Rain, I honestly have no idea what day it is that you have been waiting and preparing for these past few days.” Loki answered sarcastically as he snaked his arms around her waist, pulling her up closer to him.  
  
“Funny. Aren’t you excited to see my costume? Raina asked flirtatiously as she gave Loki smile.  
  
“Really now?”  
  
“Mhm, yep. And then maybe, later tonight...well, we can just leave that as a surprise now.”  
  
“Perhaps you can give me a preview.” Loki purred as he captured Raina's lips. Still locked in a kiss, Raina climbed on top of him. Loki moaned into Raina's mouth as she began to grind on top of him, interlacing her fingers within his hair. Raina let out a squeal as Loki gave her behind a squeeze. Loki moved from kissing her lips to her neck, nipping at the skin just below her ear. As he began to bite at her ears there was banging on the bedroom door, halting the two of them.  
  
“Hey lovebirds! Rachel says get your asses up and come downstairs to help with preparations for the Halloween party!” Tony's voice came from the hallway.  
  
“Odin Damn it...” Raina muttered. “Fuck off Tony!” She yelled back.  
  
“Yeah you'd like that wouldn't you!” He returned. Raina groaned.  
  
“Tell her we'll be down after we take showers!”  
  
“As you wish!” Raina rolled her eyes as she heard Tony's footsteps walking away from her bedroom door.  
  
“Figures Stark would be the one to interrupt us...again.” Loki mumbled against Raina's lips as he went for another kiss, only to be blocked by one of Raina's fingers.  
  
“You heard him, Rae wants us downstairs, so come on let's get into the shower.” Raina purred.  
  
“Yes, let's.”  
  
+~*~+  
  
“Okay Gwen, that cake needs to be in the oven before we get the casserole done.” Rachel instructed as she dashed back and forth in the kitchen. “Ugh, where's Rain, she's the only one who knows how to make those stupid pumpkin cookies of hers Tony-!” Rachel turned around as she yelled for Tony.  
  
“Woah, right here Rae.” Tony interrupted her.  
  
“Ah, where's Rain and Loki?” Rachel asked as she began to prepare a casserole dish.  
  
“Rain said they'd be down after they took showers.” Tony answered as he leaned against the wall.  
  
“Showers? She said showers? Plural?” Rachel questioned with a raised eyebrow.  
  
“Um yeah”  
  
“I'm sure that's what she meant.” Gwen snorted at Rachel's comment.  
  
“Riiight. I think I'll go help Bruce with the living room.” Tony waved as he left to go into the next room. Gwen placed the cake into the oven and went to helping Rachel with the casserole.  
  
“I'm surprised I haven't seen you and Steve being as 'chummy' what with how in love you too look.” Gwen smirked.  
  
“Maybe we just hide our 'chumminess' better than Rain and Loki.”  
  
“Oh really now?” Gwen joked. The two girls glanced at each other before starting to laugh.  
  
“Need any help you two?” Natasha asked as she walked into the kitchen.  
  
“Um, if you guys are hungry there are some sandwiches in the fridge if you want.” Rachel told the older woman.  
  
“I think I'll take them just in case Tony starts up.” Natasha opened the fridge and took out the plate of sandwiches. “Keep 'em in line out there.” Rachel joked.  
  
“Will do!” Natasha laughed as she left the kitchen.  
  
Nearly an hour later neither Raina nor Loki had yet to come downstairs. “Where the hell are those two! I mean, it's Halloween, Rain's holiday!” Rachel was about to go upstairs herself when commotion from the living room stopped her.  
  
“Holy shit.” Tony gaped.  
  
“Um.” Bruce couldn't think of anything to say. Steve, who was on top of a ladder putting up some fake spider webs, nearly fell off of onto the floor; Bruce had been holding the ladder in place and managed to keep it steady or else Steve would have tooled it over.  
  
“What the hell?” Clint blurted out. Rachel walked into the living room, while Gwen peaked her head out of the kitchen, walking a little ways into the living room, to see what was going on. Raina was standing in the doorway between the entertainment and living rooms wearing what could be considered half of her costume. Her hair had been dyed black, partly slicked back, she also wore a green spaghetti strap tank-top that showed off her stomach. And to top it off, dark-green, leather pants.  
  
“You look good girl!” Gwen yelled before going back to getting food ready.  
  
“Thanks Gwen!” Raina yelled back.  
  
“Are those green contacts?” Natasha asked as she squinted her eyes.  
  
“Yup. I've had 'em for a while now.” Raina stated proudly.  
  
“And now that the two of you have decided to grace us with your presence, get to helping.” Rachel laughed.  
  
“'Tis only natural that I help; Samhain is my holiday after all! The only time of the year the gates between the world of the living and that of the dead are at their weakest and the spirits come to visit those they've left behind, or the demons come to cause mayhem.” Raina returned with a creepy smile on her face.  
  
“Yeah, have fun with that.” Tony said as he went to sit on the couch.  
  
“Who knows,” Raina shrugged, “I might get possessed or something like that one year.”  
  
“Again?” Clint questioned. Rachel rolled her eyes.  
  
“So you said, but I'm pretty sure it was just the booze, you used to be a weird drunkard when we first became of age. Her voice would take a weird tone and she would speak in a different speech pattern. I'm pretty sure it was the alcohol though. Now get in the kitchen Rain, we need you to make your 'famous' Samhain witches bone cookies.” Rachel waved her younger friend over as she walked back into the kitchen, Raina skipping behind her.  
  
“For the record, the similarity between you two is creepy as hell.” Tony said to Loki as soon as the two women were in the kitchen, taking one of the sandwiches on the coffee table and stuffing one into his mouth.  
  
“Is the Man of Iron scared of a 5'4” woman?” Loki jeered upon sitting down on the other side of the couch.  
  
“Afraid? The woman knows how to throw knives and she's a freaking pyro I swear.” Tony scoffed.  
  
“You’ve seen Pepper mad, and you're scared of Rain?” Clint brought up.  
  
“Yes, but Pepper loves me. Rain...well I think it's safe to say she might be my new arch enemy once we get back.”  
  
“I think you're missing someone.” Natasha smirked as she unwrapped more fake spider webs for Steve to put up.  
  
“Who, Loki?” Tony pointed jokingly.  
  
“You're forgetting where Rain goes Loki goes.” Bruce added. Tony groaned.  
  
“I'm never getting anything done back home ever again.”  
  
“Rain that's too much sugar!” Rachel's voice rang through the house.  
  
“It's what my recipe calls for!” Raina defended.  
  
“Recipe? I was under the impression that you _accidentally_ created these while trying to figure out how to cause a heart attack.”  
  
“Oh haha. No, the faeries told me.” Everything in the kitchen went quiet.  
  
“Dude, are you sure you've never lit up one?” Gwen asked.  
  
“Lit what up?” Raina asked, oblivious. Gwen shook her head and walked out of the kitchen to help with the decorations.  
  
+~*~+  
  
“And with that I do believe we are done.” Gwen announced happily as she stood back to look at the room.  
  
“Not bad.” Tony nodded.  
  
“Where do you guys get all these decorations?” Steve asked as he, too, looked around the well decorated room. There were spider webs, decorated by small rubber spiders, everywhere. Fake blood stickers hung on the walls as well as fake gooey blood hung off various objects. There were some plastic chains hanging in places, dangling severed hands, feet, and heads. Some signs had been placed on the walls saying different things like 'Dead End', 'Cannibals Only', and even 'Dead Babies Sold Here'. And to top it off, various types of bones, both human and animal, were placed in various places around the room; Gwen said they were fake but they looked and felt too much like real bones to Steve's disliking.  
  
“Rain's been gathering up a collection of stuff like this for several years now apparently.” Loki answered.  
  
“I wanna see!” Raina shouted as she bounced into the room, followed by Rachel. “Holy Yggdrasil this is awesome!”  
  
“It looks like something out of a horror movie.” Clint noted.  
  
“That's 'cus they are! I've collected them from some of the best horror movies out there.” Raina admitted proudly.  
  
“No wonder they look so realistic.” Natasha nodded.  
  
“I thought you were afraid of spiders,” Loki joked at Raina.  
  
“Oh she is; she just manages to stomach all these fake ones because it's Halloween.” Rachel laughed.  
  
“Oh haha, let's all have fun at my expense.” Raina rolled her eyes.  
  
“Don't worry Rain, we are. Now come on, we still have stuff to finish in the kitchen.” Rachel left and went back to cooking. Raina turned and skipped back into the kitchen, humming a random Halloween tune.  
  
“Loki get in here a sec!” Raina shouted from inside the kitchen seconds later. Loki complied, leaving the living room and walking swiftly into the kitchen.  
  
“Now what?” Steve asked Gwen.  
  
“Hey Rae, what do you want us to do next?” Gwen asked as she poked her head into the kitchen.  
  
“I guess you guys can just chill for now. We're almost done with the food and what not.” Rachel explained as she pulled out some plates from the oven.  
  
“Will do.” Gwen returned back to the living room where she took a seat next to Bruce. “Rae said we can just chill till the food’s done.”


	18. Chapter 18

"Okay, try it now Loki." Raina poured more punch into a cup and handed it to him.

"Why must I be the guinea pig?" Loki asked as he took the cup from her. "Could you not get Rachel or Gwen to test it?"

"I don't trust them to give me an honest answer."

"That and I've been the guinea pig for the past few years, I'll let someone else have a chance." Rachel added. Hesitantly, Loki put the drink to his lips and downed it.

"And?"

"It's perfect Rain." Loki smiled. Raina clapped her hands together giggling.

"Now for the finishing touches for the punch." Raina removed a trap from the fridge and dumped it into the massive punch bowl. Loki glanced over her shoulder to see what appeared to be eye balls bobbing in the red punch. "Loki, can you take the bowl and put it into the center of the table?"

"As you wish." Loki picked up the giant bowl, walking over slowly to the table and put it down. He was followed seconds later by Raina holding a bag by the very top corners. Carefully, she opened the bag and turned it upside down over the bowl, letting its contents fall into the bowl. Almost immediately, a white fog began to seep out of the bowl and cascade downwards.

"Dry ice, once of my favourite substances on this planet. Whatever you do, don't touch it, you'll get frost bite. Actually, I have no idea what it'll do to you." Raina laughed as she gave Loki a wink. Loki shifted slightly.

"Yes because being I am a monster." He said grimly, looking away from Raina.

"Loki...being a Frost Giant doesn't make you a monster. It's your actions and who you choose to be." Loki went to interrupt her but was halted by Raina's finger against his lips yet again. "And you have redeemed yourself for those actions, even the ones where you weren't exactly yourself." Raina leaned herself against him, wrapping her arms around his torso. Loki wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her all the way onto him.

"You are the only one who truly believes that, Rain." He whispered.

"For now, maybe." She smiled up at him.

"Hey you two! Stop making out in the dining room and get back in here and help me!" Rachel demanded.

"Yes mom!" Raina shouted as she rolled her eyes and returned to the kitchen, hand in hand with Loki.

Rachel stood back and leaned against the wall of the dining room. "We did good kid, we did good." She nodded in approval of all of their cooking. "Hey everyone, the food is done!" Rachel shouted into the living room. As everyone was making their way into the dining room, Raina pulled Loki back up to her room so she could finish putting on the rest of her costume.

"Where is it, where is it..." Raina dug through her closet, once again tossing random articles of clothing here and there. "Ah ha!" Raina stood up, holding a box in her arms. Placing it on the bed, Raina opened it and held up the contents.

"Is that-" Loki began.

"The armor you left here from your first visit, yep." Raina grinned as she slipped it on. "I've, er, modified it slightly. Besides, you weren't using it anymore. Well, how do I look?" She turned to face Loki who was too stunned to say anything. "It's not that bad is it?" Raina had turned his armour into a sort of trench coat that closed up at her breasts and fanned down and outwards, leaving her stomach showing.

"I daresay I should let you wear my armor more often." Loki purred as he embraced her. Raina placed her lips onto his, capturing him with a quick kiss.

"Come on, I'm starving and I really need some booze."

"Of course you do love." Loki chuckled as he followed Raina back downstairs.

"Party!" Raina yelled out as soon as she stepped off the stairs.

After dozens of plates and cup fulls of punch later, the party had full on begun. Music was blasting throughout the whole house, with strobe lights flashing. The smoke machine had been turned on a few minutes ago and was quickly filling the house up with the white fog. Raina was in all out dance mode with Loki as they held each other and swayed to the beat. Tony, as unexpected as ever, had drank several cups worth of the punch and was drunk dancing .Gwen, who Rachel was almost sure she had lit up a few, was flirting with Bruce who in turn, was drunk and flirting back. Clint and Natasha were sitting on the couch with Natasha laying her head on Clint's shoulders. Rachel and Steve had been dancing earlier and were now upstairs. Suddenly, Raina left the makeshift dance floor and bolted into the dining room.

"Rain what're you doing?" Loki slurred slightly as he followed her into the dining room and walked up behind her, pulling Raina against him.

"I'm hungry." She answered plainly as she picked up several cookies and stuffed them into her mouth. Loki leaned down and started nipping and licking at one of her ears. "Cookie?" Raina offered Loki as he went to her neck.

"No, but I shall take you instead." He muttered against her soft skin.

"Oh really now?" Raina muttered back. The next thing Loki knew, Raina had turned around and pushed him against the wall and was kissing him fiercely. Raina's hands immediately went to grabbing Loki's hair while, in turn, his hands went to her waist to pull her closer. Loki's hands began to travel up and under Raina's shirt when Tony burst into the room.

"Guys you're missing the dancing!" Tony slurred terribly.

"Damn." Loki muttered against Raina's lips just before he and Raina were pulled back into the living room. Natasha and Clint were now up and dancing with each other. Gwen and Bruce were nowhere to be seen. Raina separated herself from Loki and began to 'show off' some off her belly dancing moves. It was not until Loki heard Tony wolf-whistling at her that he decided to start dancing with her again.

"Your dancing is very pleasing to the eyes, Rain." Loki mumbled into her ear.

"Well, in that case, you can expect to see a lot more of it in the future." Raina purred as she ground her hips against him.

"And your lovely tattoo as well?" Loki groaned suggestively.

"Oh yes, you can see that as much as you like." That line was all that Loki needed before he could not restrain himself any longer. Raina yelped as she was lifted up by Loki and thrown over his shoulder. Loki carried her upstairs to their room and then shut and locked the door behind them. "Loki!" Raina giggled as she was thrown down onto the bed.

"I must say, to imagine ravishing you in that outfit almost makes me feel as it I am pleasuring myself." Loki spoke as he crawled onto the bed and on top of Raina.

"I'm sure you would know a lot about that now wouldn't you?" Raina teased him as she pull his shirt off.

"Yes, yes I would, but don't worry, I'll let you experience that first hand when we get back." Loki had unbuttoned Raina's jacket and was working on getting off her spaghetti strap underneath while Raina was working on unbuttoning Loki's pants.

"I look forward to it." Raina whispered into his ear as she gave it a lick, grinning as she felt his body shudder. Loki pulled off Raina's leather pants and tossed them aside. Next went her undergarments, Loki kicking off his own pants and boxers just after. He then pulled Raina up so that both of them were on their knees.

"Turn around." Loki commanded as he ran his hands up and down Raina's sides. With Loki's aid she was swiftly turned around so that her back was against his chest. Raina leaned her head back onto his shoulder as Loki's hands travel to her breasts. Loki went to nip at her neck while Raina's own hands went to gripping at Loki's hair.

"Loki," Raina gasped arching herself off of his chest. Loki allowed one of his hands to leave Raina's breast and down to her thighs. Raina let out a low moan as Loki's fingers began to play with her folds.

"Now, kneel down before your king." He muttered into her ear.

"As you wish, my king." Loki kissed at her shoulder as Raina leaned down to lay on her elbows, with her head on the pillow. Loki ran a hand down her back, following her spine, stopping at her neck to wrap his fingers around it. His other hand, still rubbing against her folds, spread open her legs further and placed himself between them. "I'm not entirely sure of your ability to rule; maybe you should demonstrate it for me."

Loki leaned down on top of Raina, hand still around her neck. "Is that so? Well, then allow me to demonstrate for you." Loki leaned back upright, using his one hand to spread Raina's folds open as he eased himself into her, then moving the hand to her waist to steady her. Raina moaned and tried to lean her head back but was halted by Loki's hand still gripping her neck; it only resulted in turning her on more. Loki began to move in and out of Raina, slowly at first, and when he could tell she had gotten accustomed to him yet again, Loki began to move in and out of her faster and faster.

Raina gripped at the sheets around her as both of them began to pant. Loki's hand gripped at her waist tighter, his other hand giving her neck a small squeeze before moving to her stomach, where he lifted her up against him yet again and then allowing his hand to rest at her breast. Loki started back thrusting as soon as Raina was fully flushed against his chest, bouncing up and down on the bed. Turning her head, Raina captured Loki's lips, their tongues dancing within their mouths. Raina turned her head back to face forward, leaning back on his shoulder, as she let out a soft moan. "Loki..."

"Not yet my dear, just hold on Rain." Loki spoke as he leaned his head against hers. He began to thrust into her faster, causing Raina to let out yet another moan as she panted harder. Loki's thrusts began to get rougher as he felt himself getting close.

"Loki." Raina whimpered.

"Rain!" Loki shouted upon climaxing, his body shuddering as he felt Raina tighten around his member. The two collapsed onto the bed, Loki holding Raina close to him in his embrace. Raina place a gentle kiss onto his lips.

"I love you Loki, my king, my life." She whispered, placing a hand onto his cheek.

"You my sweet Rain are all that I hold dear. I wish for nothing more than to be by your side." Loki replied, his breath lightly hitting against Raina's lips. Smiling, Raina placed one last kiss on his lips before cuddling up closer to him. The two fell asleep, legs very much entangled, in embrace.


	19. Chapter 19

Rachel spent most of the evening with Steve, not paying attention to the others, neither of them had had much to drink by the time that Rachel took Steve’s hand and led him upstairs, going straight to their room. As soon as they had crossed the threshold of the room, Rachel snapped the door shut and pushed Steve against it, kissing him fiercely.  Steve tensed up for a moment, not expecting Rachel’s actions at all, but, once he got out of fight mode, he relaxed and, pulling her closer, kissed her back.  Rachel reached behind Steve and locked the door, then pulled away.

 

Steve smiled and pulled her back towards him, kissing her passionately.  He ran his hands down to her jeans, resting them on her hips.

 

“Bed?” Steve asked breathlessly once they parted.

 

“Bed,” Rachel confirmed, pulling away and leading Steve to the bed where she lightly pushed him onto it.  She smiled at the wide eyed look that Steve gave her before she straddled him.  Rae leaned down and kissed him, her lips lightly brushing over his. 

 

She immediately straddled him, not giving him any time to even think of doing anything else, those actions letting Steve know that Rachel planned to be the one in control this time and he was more than happy to hand the reigns over to her as she put pressure on his member.

 

“Rachel,” he moaned, begging her not to tease and realising that that was exactly what she planned to do when he saw the coy smile on her face.  She leaned down to him and kissed Steve deeply as she started to work his shirt off.  They broke the kiss to get his shirt off all of the way and then to get hers off.  When he saw Rachel’s bra, he couldn’t help but chuckle at it.  It was navy blue with white stars printed in a repeating pattern across the entire thing.

 

“Shut up,” she said, a light blush spreading across her face.

 

“I like it,” he smirked.

 

“I’m sure you do,” Rachel said, leaning down to kiss him again, pressing their bodies closer.  Steve wrapped his hands around her waist, making sure she wasn’t going anyway, knowing that neither of them were very stably resting on the bed.

 

Rachel leaned back, knowing that Steve had her, and began to unbuckle his belt, then undo his pants.  She eventually had to stand as they both stripped each other of the obstructive clothing articles.  As soon as they were rid of them, Rachel kissed Steve, pushing him and causing the pair of them to fall ungracefully onto the bed.

 

“You’re going to kill us,” Steve complained playfully, rubbing his elbow as he lay on his side, facing Rae.

 

“Mmm,” Rachel said already leaning close to Steve in order to kiss him, “But to die while in the throes of passion can’t be _all_ that bad.”

 

Steve chuckled as Rachel leaned to kiss him again, pushing him onto his back. She slid her hand off his shoulder, feeling his toned body as she made her way down to his hard member and lightly began stroking him, causing him to moan.  Rachel let go in order to kiss Steve, causing him to groan.  She kissed along his jawline before moving onto his neck.  Rachel would also randomly suck a spot on his skin as she kissed her way down his body, earning a gasp every few times that she did it.  She stopped once she reached his navel and moved back to kiss Steve on the lips while straddling him.

 

Much to his dismay, she pulled away once again.  Rachel positioned herself quickly and began to slowly slide down his shaft, causing Steve to groan and arch his back while putting both hands on her hips.  Rachel put her hands on his in order to stop him from pushing her on him faster than she wanted to go.  What felt like hours later to Steve, Rachel had finally slid all the way down his member.  He groaned when he realised that she intended upon keeping the slow pace she had set.

 

“Rachel,” he begged.  She only smiled and leaned down long enough to kiss him quickly.  She kept the tantalizing pace for a few minutes more before she started to ride him energetically.  Steve’s hands, which had remained on her hips, tightened around her hips as she bounced with more vigor. Rachel moved one of Steve’s hands to her breast, where he began to tease her, making her moan.

 

Rachel felt herself begin to come and heard Steve groan as she tightened around him, causing him to come quickly after.  She leaned down and kissed Steve hard before sliding off him and throwing herself next to him on the bed.  Steve reached for her hand, at the moment, feeling speechless, and pulled it up to his lips, kissing it.

 

“We should probably actually get in the bed rather than lay on it sideways,” Rachel said after a few moments.

 

Steve laughed and, turning to face Rachel, said, “After you.”

 

“I’m too tired.”

 

He kissed her on the cheek, “Then we’ll get to it,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her.

 

“I love you Rae.”

 

“I love you too Steve.”  
  
+~*~+

  
The next morning, Rachel woke up due to a crash from the hall.  
  
“Fuck,” she mumbled, snuggling into Steve’s chest as she heard Natasha screaming Raina’s name.  
  
“Good morning to you too,” Steve joked.  Rachel finally looked up as she heard another bang, “Good morning,” she said with a smile on her face.  
  
“I will cut your fingers off, one by one you little brat!”  
  
“We should probably get up,” Steve said.  
  
“Let someone else deal with it; I’d prefer staying in bed with you.”  
  
Steve chuckled and wrapped his arms around Rachel, “Me too, but Rain’ll only listen to you.”  
  
Rachel sighed, “Let’s just skip out on responsibilities today.”  
  
Suddenly they heard a bang on the door, “Rachel,” they heard Clint say through the door, “We need you out here.”  
  
“Damn it,” she whispered to Steve, “They found me.”  
  
Steve chuckled and then said, “I guess we’ll rain-check on that responsibility free day.”  
  
“Yep,” she said, moving off Steve, “Give me a minute,” she yelled to Clint.  She then got up and threw on her underwear, pants and a shirt, Steve doing the same thing simultaneously.  Rachel pulled her hair into a bun and said, “I feel like this isn’t going to be my day.”  
  
Steve smiled and unlocked and opened the door.  
  
“What happened to you?”  Rachel asked with concern as soon as she saw Clint.  He looked completely disheveled, with his clothes a dusty brown and wrinkled, his hair looked as though there were seeds in it and his eyes were red, most likely, Rachel thought, from whatever had made his clothes dusty brown.  
  
“Raina dropped multiple pounds of bird seed on Nat and me,” Clint said.  
  
“It got in your eyes?” she asked, though she already knew the answer.  
  
Clint nodded, “Natasha’s worse and she’s trying to kill Raina, which means that Loki’s running after Natasha in his boxers.  Gwen’s chasing after all of them because Raina apparently did something to her too.”  
  
“Jesus H.” Rachel said, running her fingers through her hair, forgetting that it was tied back.  Steve, who had looked over at her when she spoke, took her hair down so that she could get it unstuck.  
  
“Are Bruce and Tony okay?”  
  
“I think so.”  
  
Rachel nodded and, once again pulled her hair up and walked out of the room, noticing that there was now a dent in the wall, she only hoped that Raina hadn’t been thrown into that wall by Natasha.  
  
“That’s my fault,” Clint said when he noticed Rachel looking at it with a concerned expression, “And it was Loki.”  
  
Rachel nodded and continued down the stairs, quickening her pace when she heard another crash that sounded as if it came from the dining room.  She beat Clint and Steve down the stairs and immediately wished that she and Steve had just stayed in bed.  Someone had thrown a knife into the dining room, breaking the punch bowl.  Rachel sighed and continued down the hall, where Bruce and Tony were standing in the doorway of the office with shocked expressions on their face.  Loki and Natasha were fighting in the kitchen; it looked as if Natasha was winning due to her training in hand-to-hand combat.  Gwen, whose blonde hair was now damp and white, was screaming at Raina in the living room.  Rachel rolled her eyes at the chaos that Raina had created, forcing herself not to smile and laugh.  Her attention was diverted when she saw Natasha get yet another knife and go to stab Loki, who had just barely dodged the attack.  
  
“Natasha!” she yelled, to no avail.  Rachel glanced at Gwen and Raina, who were not nearly as close to killing each other as the other pair and went to the kitchen, ignoring Clint, who told her to let him try and stop Natasha.  Rachel avoided broken glass on the kitchen floor as she ran into the kitchen.  Natasha, noticing Rachel’s presence, turned around and swung at Rachel, assuming that it was Raina.    
  
Rachel grabbed Natasha’s wrist, but not before Natasha had nicked her collarbone.  Rachel watched as Natasha’s eyes widened with realisation of what she had almost done.  
  
“Give me the knife,” Rachel said over Gwen’s screaming.  Natasha silently turned her hand to offer Rachel the knife.  Rachel took it, letting go of Natasha’s wrist and looked at Loki, “Go put some clothes on.”  
  
“She was going to kill Raina,” he started angrily.  
  
“It wasn’t a suggestion Loki!” Rachel yelled, not giving him a chance to finish speaking.  She looked at Natasha for a second before turning a complete one eighty and yelling at Gwen, “Will you shut up?”  
  
Gwen and Raina looked over at Rachel with surprised expressions on their faces, neither of them had noticed her all the time that she had been downstairs.  
  
“But Rae,” Gwen started angrily, “She put baby powder in my hair dryer!”  
  
Rachel sighed and set the knife down on the counter as Loki came back down the stairs, pushing past Gwen to stand predatorily next to Raina.  Rachel walked back out of the kitchen, being careful to whatever glass object that she had that had been broken.    
  
“I don’t care what she did,” Rachel said, “There was no reason to destroy my house over it.”  
  
“You’re going to have to talk to your little superhero buddies about that,” Gwen snapped.  
  
“You know what, you’ve been just as volatile too, don’t pretend like you couldn’t do enough damage.”  
  
Gwen’s mouth dropped open and she took a breath to say something but was prematurely cut off by Natasha, who said, “Why aren’t you reprimanding _her_?”  
  
“I’ll get to that Natasha. I don’t need to be told how to handle Rain.”  
  
“I’m right here you know.”  
  
“Yes, and for right now, you’ll be silent,” Rachel ordered.  
  
“Gwen, go wash your hair again and use _my_ hairdryer.  Only when you have calmed back down to your normal self, come downstairs.”  
  
Gwen frowned, but followed Rachel’s orders.  
  
“Loki and Rain,” Rachel started with a, quite frankly, scary smile on her face, “You two will also go upstairs, but you get to clean Natasha’s room.  Every single seed will be out of there.  Do you understand?”  
  
“Can’t I get a shower first?”  
  
“No,” Rachel said, “What the hell makes you think that you can do whatever you feel like?  Look at what the hell you’ve done to the house Rain.  Get the vacuum and clean the room.”  
  
Loki pulled Raina out of the living room and towards the stairs, though she didn’t go quietly.  
  
“You could use a shower,” Rachel said to Natasha.  Though she said it nicely, Natasha knew it wasn’t a suggestion and walked quickly upstairs.  Rachel walked over to the couch and sat down.  
  
“You guys want a pizza for breakfast? The kitchen’s got glass in it right now.”  
  
“I can clean-”  
  
“No Bruce, you’re not going to clean it.  You didn’t make the mess.”  
  
“You’re really creepy when you’re calm,” Tony said.  
  
Rachel laughed, “Good.”  She looked around to everyone who was still standing.  
  
“You guys can sit down, I’m not mad at you.”  
  
Steve, Bruce and Tony sat down in the living room with Rachel.  
  
“I think I’ll go take a shower too,” Clint said.  
  
“Sounds good,” Rachel said.  Clint turned around and started towards the stairs.  
  
“I’m really not mad at _you_ Clint.  You did what you had to,” Rachel said, looking past Steve, so that she could look Clint in the eye when he turned around.  
  
Clint nodded and, feeling slightly better, walked upstairs to take a shower.  
  
“Ugh,” Rachel said, “ _I_ need a shower.”  
  
Bruce laughed at the absurdity of the situation while Steve noticed the blood that was trickling down Rachel’s chest.  
  
“She cut you?” he yelled.  
  
“Steve it’s fine,” Rachel started as he move to get up.  Rachel grabbed his hand and yanked him back down to the couch, though not without almost being pulled off the couch.  
  
“It was an accident and you know it,” Rachel said to Steve.  
  
“You haven’t seen her kill someone up close,” Tony said in Steve’s defense, “She could’ve really hurt you.  Actually, she probably would have accidentally murdered you.”  
  
“Exactly,” Steve said.  
  
“ _I’m_ the one who walked up to a trained assassin while she was attacking Loki with a knife.  If anyone should be blamed, it’s me.”  
  
Steve sighed, knowing that Rachel wasn’t going to listen to what he was saying, and probably didn’t even realise how bad things could have gone, had she not grabbed Natasha’s wrist.  Rachel put her hand on Steve’s knee in a comforting way, “It’s fine,” she repeated, “I was just in a car accident a few days ago, a small cut by a knife isn’t really all that different from the cut on my head.”  
  
“I think you have your priorities wrong,” Bruce said.  
  
“How?  The car accident was on purpose.”  
  
“Yes, but _Rain_ did it,” Tony said, “Even with a car, she’s not as deadly as THE Black Widow.  I don’t think you understand who she is, you’ve only seen her here, when she pretends that she’s not cold, calculating and knows how to kill you fifteen different ways before you even realise she’s there.”  
  
“And that’s why it’s not a problem,” Rachel insisted, “She didn’t mean to.”  
  
Bruce, Tony and Steve sighed loudly before dropping the issue, knowing that there was no way to change Rae’s mind.     



	20. Chapter 20

They sat in silence, watching the news until Gwen, Clint, Natasha, Loki and Rain had all come back downstairs, though they were all being standoffish. Once the five of them were downstairs, Rachel stood up.

"Okay, Natasha and Loki, it's your lucky day," she started sarcastically, "You get to clean the kitchen and dining room together."

"Are you nuts?" Clint asked.

"No, I'm Rachel, and they're doing this. Just like Gwen and Rain get to take down all the Halloween decorations together."

"It took everyone working together to get these up!" Gwen protested.

"You should've thought about that before you blew up and started screaming at Rain at nine in the morning. You're all adults, why don't you start acting that way? I know that Rain is a five year old, but so do you," Rachel said to Natasha and Gwen, "She's going to keep doing these things and I can't be there to prevent her every time, you either need to prank her back or just learn to let it go. And for God's sake Loki, you can't try to kill everyone who's mad at Rain. You'll have a long list of people. And Rain," Rachel said, looking at her friend, "You and I are going to have a talk that you won't like after you finish cleaning."

Raina looked down and nodded at Rachel's words.

"Good, now, I'm going to take a shower. You four clean, and if, for any reason, I'm pulled out of my shower for something that you're doing, I will hurt you." Rachel didn't wait for a response before walking towards the stairs and up to her room.

After her shower, Rachel dried off and straightened her hair, then got dressed and headed back downstairs to see everyone's progress. Clint and Tony were helping Gwen and Raina with getting the decorations down while Steve and Bruce were helping Loki and Natasha in the dining room. Rachel walked into the kitchen, pleased to find that it had been cleaned first, and began making food for everyone.

She helped finish cleaning off the dining room table before telling everyone to take a break so that they could all eat. The atmosphere of the meal was tense, as no one had resolved their issues. After breakfast, Rachel had Bruce, Steve, Tony and Clint spend the early afternoon hours in the entertainment room.

"Why are you having them do this?" Bruce asked at one point.

"Have you ever seen the parent trap?" Because Steve hadn't she explained that, she was hoping, that the animosity between the two pairs would die down a bit through the solidarity of having to clean up. By their late lunch, the two pairs were acting less tense around one another, but by that time, they had finished cleaning the messes that they had made. Rachel took Raina up to Rae's room in the early evening hours, leaving everyone else downstairs.

"Those were horrible pranks," Rachel said to Raina.

"I thought they were-"

"Rain," Rachel said, cutting Rain off, "They were really dangerous. You could've blinded Natasha or Clint with the bird seed, or even Gwen with the baby powder."

"I didn't think of that," Raina said, putting her head down.

"I know you didn't. You need to find a way to make it up to them. That could've ended so much worse. Plus, look at Loki and Natasha. They weren't that good before, and now they've got this fight to add to the stress of the situation."

"What do I do to fix it?"

"You're gonna have to figure that out on your own kid."

"What?" Raina asked with shock.

"It's part of your punishment. You have to come up with a way to fix it, and to make it up to Gwen, Clint and Natasha."

Raina sighed, but nodded, "Okay."

"Alright. Go play with Loki or something."

Raina cracked a smile and stood up from the chair that Rachel kept in her room then left. Rachel smiled to herself, thinking that she really did feel better when calming the chaos that Raina created. That was why they were always going to be a perfect match. Rachel looked down at her bed, frowning because she hadn't had time to make it, not that it mattered, because she was going to change the bedding anyway. She began pulling the comforter off and throwing it in the corner of the room. Rachel was so busy with getting the sheets off of the bed that she didn't notice anyone come into the room until she turned around to throw the sheets in the same direction as the comforter. She gasped when she saw Natasha standing in the doorway.

"Holy hell," Rachel said, breathing hard, "You really do just pop up."

Natasha briefly let a smile appear on her face, "May I speak with you?"

"Of course," Rachel said, feeling as though she knew exactly why Natasha was there.

"Do you need help with the bed?"

"I will always accept help when it comes to making a bed."

Natasha smiled as Rachel went to her closet and pulled out a set of dark blue sheets.

"So," Rachel said as they threw the pillows on the floor and spread the fitted sheet over the mattress before stretching it and tucking it under the mattress, "What did you want to say?"

"I'm sorry," Natasha said, "For cutting you."

"Did Steve say something? I told him not to."

"You don't think I'm capable of genuine remorse? I have to be pushed into it?"

"No, I know you are," Rachel said as they got the loose sheet fitted around the mattress, "I saw the look on your face when I caught your wrist."

"That was a stupid thing to do," Natasha said harshly, "I could have killed you."

"I saw your intended trajectory; I didn't just walk in there and hope to come out alive."

Natasha remained silent as they put the comforter back on the bed.

"I'm more concerned about the fact that you thought I was Rain."

Natasha continued straightening out the comforter long after it was needed.

"Loki shoved Clint, I was just trying to hurt what Loki loved. I- I wasn't thinking."

"I know. And, despite what everyone around here thinks, I know what you are. But it was concerning."

Natasha let out a short laugh, "You almost got your throat cut and you're saying that it was concerning, and not even about yourself, about your friend. That's ridiculous."

"That's me: ridiculous."

"I am sorry, I truly am."

"There was no real damage, it's okay Natasha," Rachel assured her as she bent down and picked up the pillows.

Natasha followed suit, telling Rachel that it wasn't okay.

"I didn't ask to be this," Natasha said.

"Is it days like these that you regret it?"

"No, most days I regret it."

"If it makes you feel any better, I like you the way you are, and just because you nicked me while mistakenly thinking that I was my friend doesn't make me wanna stop being your friend."

"You think we're friends?" Natasha asked, still feeling as though her actions were unforgivable.

"We are," Rachel said confidently.

Despite herself, Natasha smiled, "Is there anyone you turn away?"

Rachel laughed, "Yes, I just haven't met them yet."

Natasha walked back towards the door, "Thank you Rachel."

Rachel smiled, "No problem. Did Rain redo your bed?"

"I'm not sure," Natasha said.

"Well let's go check."

"One more thing," Natasha started as they headed to her room.

"What?"

"What do you and Raina mean by best family?"

"Oh," Rachel smiled, "It's, I guess a step between best friend and family. We came up with it when Raina was hurt by something her father said. She told me that she wished I was her family and not just her best friend and I kinda combined the two. A best family member is a person that you'd give up everything for to protect them might be the best way to describe it."

"Ah."

"We were like sixteen when I said it," Rachel laughed, "But we do only really use it if one of us is really emotionally distraught. It's special like that."

"Looks like she did do my bed."

"Good, I don't have to yell anymore."


	21. Chapter 21

“What’s for breakfast?”  Raina asked as she came down the stairs with Loki.  
  
“Pancakes,” Bruce answered from the kitchen.  
  
“Yay!”  
  
“You don’t get to have sugar with it,” Rachel said.  
  
“What?”  Raina asked, scandalized.  
  
“It was a joke kid.”  
  
“Oh, well then, yay pancakes and sugar!”  
  
“Why are you acting like you’ve already had too much sugar this morning?” Tony asked, holding a cup of coffee in his hand.  
  
“I have a Halloween stash in my room.”  
  
“No she doesn’t,” Rachel said, laughing at the look of horror on Tony’s face.  
  
“I need more caffeine if I’m going to deal with you this early in the morning.”  
  
“It’s eleven.”  
  
“Too early,” he repeated.  
  
“What are we gonna do today Rae?” Raina asked as she walked into the kitchen to get pancakes.    
  
“I thought we could write.  We do have that one section that we need to finish.”  
  
“I don’t wanna.”  
  
“It wasn’t actually a suggestion,” Rachel laughed.  
  
“Can I eat first?”  
  
“Of course you can eat first.”  
  
Once Raina had finished eating, she took a shower and got dressed for the day before heading back downstairs with her laptop.  Rachel suggested that she and Rain go into the dining room to work, Raina agreed, knowing that the sooner that they got done, the quicker she could get back to Loki.  They worked for a while in peace until Rain started complaining.  
  
“I am so tired,” Raina complained.  
  
“Shouldn’t have played games all night,” Rachel said.  They were sitting at the dining room table with the doors shut, after Rachel insisted that they finish writing a piece of their newest novel.  
  
“It wasn’t the games, it was Loki who kept me up all night.”  
  
Rachel looked up from her laptop and across the table to Raina, “What?”  
  
Raina looked up with a shocked expression on her face, “Nothing.”  
  
Rachel opened her mouth to say something when they heard a noise that sounded like thunder right outside the house.  Rain and Rachel looked at each other.  
  
“Should we go check that out?” Raina asked.  
  
“Yep,” Rachel responded, standing up and heading towards the door.  As Rachel made it to the door, it came flying open with Loki looking frantic.  When his eyes landed on Raina, Loki visibly calmed down sighing, but saying nothing.  
  
“Loki?”  Rachel asked with concern. Raina only stared at Loki. Loki remained silent and in the same place which put him in the perfect position to be shoved out of the doorway by Steve, who ran straight to a confused Rachel and grabbed her hand.  
  
“Thor’s here,” he said by way of explanation. Raina looked up at Loki with understanding, tinged with fear.  
  
“Where?” Rachel asked Steve.  
  
“Outside.  We need to go,” he said as he pulled on her hand.  
  
“Why?  What’s wrong?”  
  
“We can explain later,” Steve insisted, pulling Rachel out of the dining room and leading her out to the back, as they walked outside, Rachel realised that everyone, including Gwen, had already made their way outside and she quickened her pace.  Loki and Rain followed behind a few seconds later.  Out of habit, Raina grabbed her keys and locked the door behind them, causing Loki to chuckle despite the situation, all the while, he kept a tight grip on Raina, trying to ensure that he wouldn’t be parted from her.  The foursome made their way to the group quickly where Thor was standing, surrounded in the same golden white light that Odin had been surrounded in when he came for Loki and the Avengers last time.  Rachel’s hand tightened around Steve’s at the memory.  Thor looked over at Loki, who nodded and suddenly the light engulfed them all.  
  
If Rachel had to describe the sensation of being drug through the fabric of reality, she would say that it was exactly like she thought disapparating would have been like.  She momentarily lost her breath, feeling suffocated on all sides, though there was no darkness, just white light so bright that she had to close her eyes.  As suddenly as it began, the feeling of suffocation was gone.  Rachel looked around, seeing everyone scattered in a circular pattern in a field seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  
  
“This isn’t where we were last time,” Clint said, looking over to Thor, who nodded over at Bruce.  
  
“That wasn’t pleasant,” Raina said, looking ashen and causing Loki to rush over to her.  
  
“Are you okay kid?” Rachel asked her, not feeling any better than Raina looked.  
  
Rain didn’t get a chance to say anything because Bruce groaned, causing the attention to be diverted back to him.  He was doubled over with both of his hands on his head.  The last time that Bruce had been brought back, he had immediately had to struggle to regain control of the Hulk and lost, which is why the Avengers all backed up.  Raina realised what was happening with Bruce and took a step back, bumping into Loki while Rachel, who forgot that she had just changed realities, ran forward to catch him before he fell.  Rachel had only touched Bruce’s shoulder and asked him if he was okay before Steve yanked her backwards.  
  
“What are you doing?” She screamed angrily, struggling with Steve to get back to Bruce.  
  
“Rachel,” he said into her ear, attempting to be quiet and not set Bruce off before he could get Rachel out of there, “We’re not in your reality.”  Rachel stopped struggling with Steve as soon as she realised what he meant and let him pull her away from Bruce, knowing that she was about to become a target for the Hulk.  
  
“You, Rain and Gwen will need to run,” Steve ordered as Gwen, more cautiously than Rachel, walked up to Bruce, whose skin was turning green.  
  
“Bruce?” She asked, touching him on the shoulder while Thor rushed forward to pull her away.  Just as Thor reached Gwen and pulled her away, Bruce’s skin started to change back to its normal shade.  The entire group remained tense, but let out a sigh as Bruce straightened up.  He looked over to Gwen and said, “I’m okay.”  Gwen let out a relieved smile and let out a sigh.  
  
“Not that I’m not thrilled that you didn’t go green and try and kill us all, but why aren’t we seeing the Big Guy?” Tony asked.  
  
“It was Gwen,” Rachel said.    
  
Bruce looked over to Rachel and nodded, “I think it was too.”  Rachel saw Loki and Raina let out a sigh of relief, before she felt Steve do the same thing and loosen his grip on her.  
  
“Okay,” Steve said, looking over to Thor, “Where are they?”  
  
“Amora is wreaking havoc in New York.  Thanos is still missing, but with the Infinity Gauntlet.”  
  
“So we need to focus on her first,” Steve stated, and then, looking over to Loki, “Are you with us?”  
  
“Of course,” he answered shortly.  
  
“Yeah, but we still need to get to the city Captain,” Clint said.  
  
“I have to find Pepper,” Tony said, “Where the hell are we anyway?”  
  
“The exact place where you were, just in the correct reality.”  
  
“Our house isn’t here,” Raina said, feeling strange about it.  
  
“That’s not one of our top priorities right now, we need to get into the city.”  
  
“What are we going to do about them?” Natasha asked as she motioned to Raina, Rachel and Gwen.  
  
“Do about us?” Rachel asked, affronted.  
  
“You can’t fight,” Natasha said.  
  
“She’s right,” Loki and Steve said simultaneously, both of them sensing that Raina and Rachel would have a problem with it.  
  
“But-”  
  
“No,” Steve said to Rachel, “It’s not happening.”  
  
“Loki,” Raina said, only to get cut off by Loki.  
  
“I agree with the Captain.”  
  
“Steve you can’t-”  
  
“You can fight another fight.  Not this this one Rachel.”  
  
“If you’re all done with your lover’s quarrels, then perhaps we can focus on getting into the city and _getting Pepper out_ ,” Tony said tersely.  
  
“Okay Tony,” Steve said, understanding Tony’s stress, “We’ll just-”  
  
Steve was interrupted by a Quinjet flying overhead.  Everyone looked up and saw a Quinjet flying above them.  As everyone gathered in a smaller circle, Tony let out a sigh; it meant he was that much closer to getting to Pepper.  As soon as it landed, everyone climbed in, ignoring the looks that Raina, Rachel, Gwen and Loki were getting.  The Avengers all got comms to put in their ears as a familiar voice that none of the girls could quite place asked, “Where to?”


	22. Chapter 22

They immediately flew to Stark Tower, but not without objections from Loki, Steve and Natasha.

"We don't have time to drop them off somewhere!" Tony had argued.

"We can't take them in there!"

"So you just want to make sure your girlfriend is okay before we go try and find mine!" Tony found himself yelling at Loki.

"Yes, I do!"

"Guys," Bruce and Rachel said at the same time to get order back.

"We'll be fine," she continued.

"And we don't have time to find somewhere safe for them. We have to get there."

Eventually Steve, Natasha and Loki agreed, but spent the next couple of minutes with their arms folded across their chests like children. As they reached Stark Tower, they realised that that was exactly where Amora had decided to stake her claim. Tony's silence showed how fearful he was for Pepper's safety.

As they got closer to the tower, everyone's head turned towards Steve, waiting for his orders.

"We're going to need to distract her and since she knows that Thor will be coming after her, you're going to have to be the one to distract her Bruce. We need the element of surprise," Steve said. Bruce only nodded, feeling self-conscious about changing in front of Rachel, Raina and Gwen. Rachel, who had noticed the look on Bruce's face, grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Once she's distracted, we're going to go in; Rachel, Rain and Gwen are going to stay here." Steve looked right at Rachel as he said, "No arguments." The women nodded, none of them actually feeling like they could survive the jump that everyone else was going to make.

"First we'll find Pepper, then we'll get her out. The Quinjet won't leave without her," Steve said, more for Tony's benefit than anything else.

"And once we make sure they're out of the way, we'll go after Amora."

The Avengers and Loki all nodded in agreement to the plan and they sat in silence for the few minutes that it took them to reach Stark Tower.

Amora quickly noticed the Quinjet, and from her position on Stark Tower, she began throwing large, green fireballs at it, forcing the pilot to swerve to avoid being hit. As it swerved, half of the group had to grab onto the straps in order to avoid being thrown to the opposite side. Eventually the Quinjet was maneuvered far enough away that Amora was less likely to hit them while allowing the back to open up so that Bruce could go out and take her. They were directly above her, allowing the Hulk to have a straight shot to her.

Once the doors had opened, Bruce started walking towards the entrance so that he could jump, thinking to the Other Guy, 'You wanted out, now here's your chance. Get her.' Before Bruce could make it to the edge to jump, a well-aimed fireball came in, forcing him to jump backwards and for it to have a direct path to narrowly missing Raina, who had ducked at the last second. Rachel, who had followed the trajectory of the fireball with her eyes, looked over at Raina first to see if she was okay, then saw Loki and the look in his eyes. It was pure and unadulterated rage, which allowed Rachel to realise what he was going to do before he did. The pair of them moved simultaneously, Loki heading towards the opened doors and Rachel jumping the small distance to reach Raina.

"Amora!" Loki bellowed before jumping out of the Quinjet.

"Loki!" Raina shrieked, attempting to follow him, only to be held back by Rachel, who said, "Raina, you can't."

"He doesn't have magic!" She shrieked, ignoring the fact that both Thor and Bruce had also jumped out of the Quinjet, Thor so that he could get Loki before he fell to his death and Bruce, who was still going to go after Amora. Almost as soon as the two had followed Loki, the Quinjet was hit with a large fireball, which only made everyone except Raina feel more nervous about Loki's fate. The only way she would have been able to still attack them like that was if Loki hadn't been able to reach her. Raina was already distraught about Loki's fate, knowing that, from the moment that he had jumped, he wouldn't have been able to make it.

As soon as the Quinjet had been hit, Steve ordered Tony, Clint and Natasha out while he tried to get Rachel, Raina and Gwen to follow.

"She can't," Rachel argued, her arms still wrapped around a sobbing Raina to stop her from jumping without a parachute.

"You can't stay here! It's going to go down!" Steve yelled as the Quinjet was suddenly rocked by a gust of wind.

"I know! That's why you need to leave, so they can land the plane!"

"But Rachel-"

"Go Steve!" Rachel commanded.

"We've got them Captain," a reassuring voice said from the cockpit.

Steve looked up at the man in the cockpit and nodded, he glanced nervously at Rachel for a second, possibly thinking that it was the last time that he might see her, then set his jaw and also left the Quinjet. As soon as Steve was out of the way, the Quinjet started a barely controlled descent, landing in the street next to Stark Tower with a minimum crash. Rachel and Raina fell into the floor, and because Rain fell onto Rachel, Rachel had the wind knocked out of her, which loosened her grip and allowed Raina to run out of the Quinjet. Gwen asked Rae if she was okay and then took off after Raina, trying to make sure she'd stay safe under the circumstances.

Rachel sat up, and shook her head; it was just starting to pound. The voice from the cockpit was now in front of her and offering her his hand, which she gladly accepted. Rachel was pulled up and as she looked up to the man to thank him, her eyes widened with recognition.

"You're alive!"

"Yes, ma'am. I am," he said with some confusion. In spite of the situation, Rachel smiled at the fact that Phil Coulson was still alive.

"Oh my God, any other time I'd be ecstatic to meet you, but I have to go find Rain," Rachel said before taking off and following Gwen and Raina.

"Ma'am!" Rachel heard, but she didn't stop until she found Raina, who had been tackled to the ground by Gwen, and was still currently being pinned by her.

"Let. Me. Go!" Raina shrieked, "I'm going to kill her!"

"Rain," Rachel said, dropping to her hands and knees in front of her friend, "Let Loki handle it."

"Rae," Raina sobbed, not being able to make it past the first syllable of her friend's name, "He can't. He doesn't- he didn't have-"

"Raina!" Rachel suddenly snapped, forcing Rain to focus, "How can you lose hope so easily? He made it back to you with no magic! He'll make it back to you again! Don't give up!" Rachel said fiercely, wanting to believe her own words. Her words did seem to strike a chord with Rain, who started to regain control of her breathing, especially after Gwen got most of her weight off of Rain.

"Now get up Rain."

Gwen looked at Rachel like she was abusing Raina.

"Do you think that's such a good-"

"Yes. Raina, get up." Rachel said a little more harshly as the pilot of the Quinjet and Phil Coulson made it over to them.

"Can you please not run off like that? This is a war zone." Phil remained unheard as Raina shifted into a sitting position.

"Are you okay?"

"Do you promise?"

"On my life," Rachel said sincerely, "He will come back to you. You just need to believe in him. He's never let you down before."

Raina nodded and, with Rachel's help stood up. As she wiped her tears, Rachel pulled her into a hug and looked over Rain's shoulder, "What do we need to do now?"

"We need to wait until Miss Potts is with us and then we need to get you ladies to safety."

Rachel nodded, "Where?"

"We'll discuss that later," Phil said.

"Gwen, how's your head?" Rachel said, noticing that Gwen had a cut across her forehead.

"Nothing too bad."

Rachel nodded and let Rain out of her arms, but Rachel kept a firm hold on one of Rain's wrists.

"I need to find him," Raina said, starting to have another panic attack and starting to head towards the entrance of Stark Tower, only to be stopped when she met resistance from Rachel.

"Let him find you."

Gwen looked over at Rachel with astonishment, "Rae," she started angrily, "You can't honestly believe-"

"Shut up Gwen."

"You don't think he's alive, do you?" Raina asked Rae, her voice once again taking on a hysterical edge.

"He's a god Rain, of course he's alive. Don't listen to her," Rachel said, trying to convince everyone in the group that Loki could have survived.

Steve landed on the largest balcony where everyone else already was fighting creatures that Amora had conjured and immediately joined the fray. He realised quickly that the creatures were just a distraction as every time they were cut down, they would just reform and start fighting again.

"This is useless!" Clint yelled as he punched one of the creatures and it started to reform around his fist. Steve looked around for Loki and Amora as he dodged attacks and gave a few of his own.

As soon as he saw Thor, Steve called to him, telling him to wait until they were out of the way and light them up; Steve was hoping that lightning was their one weakness. He yelled at everyone to get inside telling them that their priority was to find Pepper. As soon as they were all clear, they saw Thor hit the creatures with lightening and stop them in their tracks while Tony told Jarvis to locate Pepper.

Once Jarvis had told Tony where she was, he took off, running up two flights of stairs to get to her. He found the place where she was supposed to be, it was a tiny closet that they kept spare towels in.

"Jarvis, are you sure?"

"Yes sir." Tony hesitantly reached for the door handle and tried to turn it. Once he realised that it was locked, he knocked on the door, "Pepper? Are you in there? It's me."

When he heard no response, Tony jiggled the handle again, "Pepper, please, are you in there?"

"You're not Tony!" He heard a distraught voice call out.

"Yes I am."

"That's what you said the last three times."

"Let me prove it to you-"

"I'm not opening the door."

"Then ask me a question."

Tony waited anxiously during the long pause that he assumed was Pepper coming up with a question.

"Did you come up with the idea for a transporter?"

"Yes and no," He said, leaning against the door and smiling at the memory, "I did have the idea myself, but there's no doubt that it would have taken longer to come up with it without you. I said you got ten percent credit and you asked, 'Why not fifteen?'"

Tony had to straighten up quickly because the door opened so fast that he almost fell inside the closet and Pepper came out so quickly and jumped into a hug with him that Tony was knocked backwards.

"It's going to be okay."

"No it's not!"

"Listen, I'm sure I'll enjoy this conversation later, but right now, we've got to save the world."

"Everyone's back?" Pepper said, leaning back and looking up at Tony.

"Yes. We've got someone outside waiting to take you to a safe place.

While Tony was busy with Pepper, Natasha, Steve and Clint went to their rooms where they had their uniforms and weapons. Once they had changed, they met up again, then headed where Tony was after asking Jarvis.

"There's nowhere safe Tony," Pepper said.

"Not in New York," Clint said, taking her arm, "I'll find a safe place for you." He looked at Tony who stepped forward and kissed Pepper. He took a step back and nodded at Clint, who escorted Pepper downstairs and then outside.

"Rachel!"

Rachel turned her head to see Clint with Pepper. Her heart stuttered painfully at the fact that Steve wasn't there.

"He's okay," Clint said as he and Pepper reached the group. Rachel nodded, but pulled Raina even closer.

"Wait, The Rachel?" Pepper asked.

"Yes," Clint answered, then said to Phil, "Get them out of here," before turning around and running back into the building.

"How exactly are we going to get out of here?" Rachel asked.

"I've called a ride," Phil said as a helicopter flew overhead.

It hovered over them and a ladder was released out of the side of it.


	23. Chapter 23

Loki jumped out of the Quinjet without a second thought.  He knew that Amora had the ability to have taken down the flying machine already and that she had just been playing with them.  He also knew that she had aimed at Rain on purpose.  Though he didn’t have any magical abilities, he was still a god in this reality and he knew he could survive the jump to the landing.  He landed rougher than he was used to because he didn’t have any magical protection.  As he straightened up, he heard Amora laughing.  
  
“You look like a fool,” she said laughing and starting to circle him, “Why are you pretending to be mortal Loki?”  
  
“How dare you!” He exclaimed, ignoring her jibes, “You will pay for endangering her life.”  
  
“Oh really?” She asked, stopping in front of him, “How are you going to stop me?  What magic do you have?”  
  
“I need no magic to end you,” he said as he lunged at her.  It wasn’t enough time to stop her from sending one more, rather large, fireball towards the Quinjet, but because she was distracted, he did tackle her to the floor.  
  
“Let’s see your little mortal survive that,” Amora laughed as she rolled them over so that she was straddling him.  Loki looked up to see the Quinjet be hit dead on.  His heart stopped momentarily at the fact that Rain was still on there.  
  
Enraged, Loki kicked her off of him and without a second thought, pushed Amora off of the ledge. Though he knew it wouldn’t kill her, it gave him immense pleasure to get rid of her, until she grabbed his wrist and took him with her.  
  
Loki’s eyes widened when he felt Amora pull him down with her.  It was so quick that he had no time to try to catch himself on anything.  As they plummeted downward, Amora quickly conjured a knife and thrust it into Loki’s chest.  Loki gasped when he felt the blade pierce his skin; it was more than the usual pain, making Loki realise that the knife was coated in poison.  He heard Amora laugh at him before teleporting herself away.  
  
As he fell, he only thought of how he was letting Rain down by dying, though he was also reminded of the time he felt as though he let his father down and let himself fall into an abyss.  Right before the moment of peace that Loki felt before he died, he saw Rain’s face.  Then the world went black and he knew nothing.  
  
+~*~+  
  
The All-Father watched as his son sacrificed himself to protect the Midgardian. He smiled at Loki’s selflessness, but then sighed at the foolish actions that Loki had taken to protect her.  
  
“What it is?”  
  
“Loki has killed himself to defend a mortal.”  
  
Frigga gasped and covered her mouth, “He is dead?”  
  
“He is a fool,” Odin said, harsher than he intended.  
  
“He is trying,” Frigga said in Loki’s defense.  Odin looked over at Frigga and nodded, conceding her point.  
  
“Hel has taken his body as well,” Odin said as he continued to tell Frigga what he was seeing.  
  
“She wants to protect him.”  
  
“It will make things easier,” Odin said.  Frigga smiled, understanding what her king was going to do.  
  
“It will,” she agreed.  
  
Odin rose from his golden throne, “I think I shall pay my granddaughter a visit.”  
  
“Give them my love,” Frigga said.  
  
Odin was suddenly surrounded in a bright, golden white light which transported him to Niflheim and as the light disappeared, he saw the gray mist that was indicative of Niflheim and felt the freezing temperatures through his armor.  
  
“All-Father,” he heard Hel say, “What brings you to this realm?”  
  
“My son.”  
  
“Thor has yet to pass by me even once,” Hel said, a wickedly playful smile on her lips.  
  
“I’m speaking, of course, of Loki,” The All-Father said as he walked up to his granddaughter.  
  
“You recognise him as your son now?”  
  
“I never stopped viewing him as my son,” Odin said.  
  
“And what do you want with him?”  
  
“I want you to return him to the world of the living.”  
  
“What do you have to gain by it?”  
  
“The joy of seeing one’s child. Alive.”  
  
“No other purposes?”  
  
“Hel,” Odin said to let her know that she was testing his patience.  They both knew that she would just bring him back anyway.  
  
"I'll bring him back, but not for you All-Father, no, I shall do it for the mortal woman who has captured his heart so fiercely.”  
  
Odin nodded at her. Hel smiled, knowing that she had made her point clear to the All-Father, and picked up a golden vial that sat beside her on her throne. Gracefully, she pulled out the stopper from its top. An emerald-green mist slowly floated out of it, disappearing into the gray sky above them.

  
+~*~+

All Loki knew was darkness after he fell.  He was entirely weightless and he was surprised that he was still cognizant.  He had assumed that all consciousness ended once one was taken to Niflheim.  Loki was just starting to try and figure out if his spirit was connected to his body, or if he was whole when he was suddenly engulfed in a golden white light.  Loki instinctively closed his eyes and brought his arm over them, which is how he found out that his spirit was connected with his body once again.  
  
As the light’s intensity lessened, he lost his weightless feeling and felt his feet hit a floor.  Loki uncovered his eyes and opened them when he sensed the light was gone.  Once his eyes had adjusted to the light, he saw that he was in the throne room in his home in Asgard.  He also realised that he was wearing only a tunic and trousers.  
  
“Mother, Father,” he said, greeting his parents as soon as he realised that they were also in the room.  
  
“It’s good to have you back,” Frigga said, grinning at her son and explaining that he had, in fact, been dead, but was now back.  
  
“Why am I?”  
  
“Actions are heard more than words,” Odin said, “Son, you showed me that you had changed by willingly giving your life for the Midgardian.”  
  
“How much time has passed?” Loki questioned carefully.  
  
“Not long,” Frigga answered.  Loki smiled, if the All-Father would allow it, Loki could find his way back to Raina.  
  
“May I go back to Midgard Father?”  
  
“No Loki,” the All-Father said, “Not until you have all of your magic again.  You’re going to need it if you plan on defeating Amora and Thanos.”  
  
Loki’s heart stuttered back into a rhythm after Odin said that he would return his full powers to him.  Loki smiled, “Thank you Father,” he said as he was once again surrounded by a white gold light.  
  
“You’re welcome son.”  
  
This time, Loki was roused into a proper form of consciousness.  He took a gasping breath and sat up.  He was in the exact location that he would have been in when he landed.  He realised that the entire conversation that he had with his parents had been in his head and he wondered for a moment whether or not he had just made it all up in his head until he looked down and saw that he was in his full battle armor.  
  
Loki smiled as he stood up.  He could feel his magic surrounding him and coursing through his veins like blood.  He was a full god again.  
  
“Now,” he said to himself, “To find Rain.”

 


	24. Chapter 24

When Rain, Rae, Gwen and Pepper made it to the helicarrier, they were momentarily stunned by everything that the helicarrier was. It was grandiose, even to Pepper, who lived with Tony. It was so electronically advance, that Rachel was sure that some of those things couldn't exist in her reality, that the technology wouldn't exist. There was just so much going on and it was so big that Gwen was sure this thing shouldn't even be in the air. Raina didn't really notice anything, but remained silent with a tear-stained face, just following Rachel around.

Coulson brought them to the main flight deck so that he could both work and keep an eye on them. They were sitting at a table, Rain, Rachel and Gwen facing everyone working while Pepper sat at the end so that she could watch Rachel and Raina without being too intrusive. Rachel practically had Rain in her lap, trying to get her to engage in anything and looking afraid of the vacant stare on Raina's face.

"So," Pepper started after Rachel had all but given up talking to Rain, "I've heard a lot about you two."

Rachel gave Pepper a brief smile as she continued to rub Rain's back and tightly hold onto her arm, "We've heard a lot about you too."

"Not all bad, I hope," Pepper joked.

"At one point you were called a saint."

Pepper's eyebrows rose in surprise, "By whom?"

"Tony."

"I love his sarcastic personality," Pepper said, smiling.

"He wasn't being sarcastic."

"Wow, that's something."

Rachel smiled, "I would've liked to meet you under better circumstances though."

Pepper also smiled and then nodded, "I agree. Not to be rude, but who are you?"

"I'm Gwen; they just met me about a week ago, so you wouldn't have heard about me."

Pepper laughed, "I guess not, but if they're your company, I'll just assume that you're as unique and intriguing as the other two."

Gwen smiled, "I like you. You're the first one from this world that I genuinely like."

"What about Bruce?" Rachel asked offhandedly, causing Gwen to blush and Pepper to chuckle.

Their conversation was interrupted by a voice that signaled that a new Quinjet was coming in and this time, it had the Avengers on it. Rachel's heart picked up, she was concerned about whether or not Loki was going to be on that aircraft and how Rain would take it and whether or not Steve was okay. She anxiously waited for the Avengers, plus, she hoped, Loki to come onto the main deck. As they waited, Rachel's grip on Raina tightened to the point where it would form a bruise.

Rachel turned around so that she could watch the door for when the Avengers finally arrived. As they walked through the door, Rae scanned across all of the figures there for Loki. When she didn't find him she locked eyes with Steve who very slightly shook his head. Raina looked up and then turned around. When she didn't see Loki, she looked over to Thor, "Did you find him?" she croaked.

"No."

Raina was once again distraught, shaking Rae off of her and standing up to walk away.

"But that doesn't mean-"

"Will you shut up?" Raina shrieked, turning around to face Rachel, "He's dead! He couldn't have survived! And you're sitting there with the knowledge that Steve's alive telling me not to give up on fucking hope?" Raina screamed, her voice turning shrill.

"Rain," Rachel started, only to be cut off by Raina tackling Rachel to the ground. Rachel landed hard on the floor, once again hitting her head.

"No!" Raina screamed at Rachel, "You listen to me for once!" As Raina got angrier, everyone in the room stopped attempting to come towards the pair because suddenly, there was a gust of wind that no one could figure out where it started or where it came from until they looked at Raina. Without a doubt, it had to be her because it didn't start until she got angry.

"I don't have to listen to you," Rachel yelled back, pushing Rain off of her, completely ignoring the wind that was billowing around them, "I'm older!" Rae's words only cause Raina to start to hit Rachel at any angle that she could get at.

Though there was wind everywhere, Gwen found herself rolling her eyes at the pair.

"Guys!" she yelled at them, "Just chill out!" Gwen frowned as she found herself being ignored and as Raina threw a particularly vicious punch towards Rachel's face. Rae caught Rain's wrist and yelled at her to stop, and for a moment, Raina's eyes glazed over, the wind stopped completely and she seemed to be willing to stop until Rae let go of her wrist, then she seemed to get her anger back and pulled her fist back for another punch as the wind built back up, which is when Gwen stepped forward and put her hand on Rain's shoulder.

"Calm down Rain."

Everyone who was close enough to see it was shocked to see Raina's demeanor completely change. Rain's face smoothed out so that she had a calm expression on her face. It wasn't vacant like before, she was clearly still aware of all that was going on, but she had a look of being completely fine with everything. Her shoulders were relaxed and her hands were no longer balled into fists.

Rachel looked up to Gwen, "How?"

Gwen let go of Rain in order to look at her hands, "I have no idea," she said, looking shocked.

Rachel looked over to Bruce, but got sidetracked from what she was going to say when Rain moved away from her.

"Loki's dead," she said to herself.

"But," Rachel said, looking at Thor, "You couldn't find a body right?"

"No, I could not."

"None of us could," Steve said, not sure where Rachel was going with this.

"Then Hel has him!" she smiled, looking at Rain.

"So?"

"So, we can just ask her to give him back," Rachel said, still childishly holding onto anything that could keep her friend from jumping off the edge of the helicarrier. Rachel looked over to Thor for confirmation. "Right?" she asked pitifully, "Hel would understand. She's his daughter. She'd give him back."

"I cannot guarantee it," Thor said.

"But Odin-"

"My father can ask but there is no certainty. He cannot make her do anything she does not want-"

Thor's words were cut off by Raina's sobbing. This time, however, instead of Rachel trying to encourage her, Rachel started crying too. Rachel had been holding on for both of them for over a year. She hadn't let herself give up hope and now, she knew that she was going to have to try and support Rain again. She also knew that Rain wouldn't live without Loki again. She knew she was losing her best friend. Raina was the only reason she had kept holding out on hope so long. She didn't want to see Rain lose herself again.

Finally, Raina reached out and Rachel grabbed her, and even though she didn't believe it, she said, "It's gonna be okay kid. We'll figure it out."

Raina gave Rachel a weak smile as a few more tears managed to slip down her cheeks. Rachel wrapped her arms around her younger friend in an attempt to comfort both of them. Raina placed her face into Rachel's shoulder, not wanting anyone else to see her crying. The rest of the Avengers stared with saddened eyes; Thor was fighting back tears of his own. Gwen grabbed Bruce's hand for reassurance. Suddenly, there was a slight popping sound, followed by a scent that was all too familiar to Raina; mint. All other S.H.E.I.L.D. Agents present were suddenly readying their guns.

"Oh my god!" Gwen whispered as she placed both her hands over her mouth. Rachel looked up from the younger woman in her arms.

"Rain...turn around." She whispered. Raina looked up shakily and turned around.

"Loki!" She shouted as she let go of Rachel and ran to him. "Don't you ever do that again! You hear me!" Raina started pounding her fists on his chest armour, tears of joy falling freely from her eyes. "Son of a bitch!" Loki placed his hands onto Raina's shoulders, leaning his head down and placing his forehead against hers.

"I won't Rain. I won't" He whispered to her.

"We thought you were dead." Rachel spoke up.

"I was."

"What?" Raina looked up at him with confused eyes.

"How did you get back then?" Steve asked for the whole group.

"Father went to Niflheim and had Hel return me." Loki explained.

"And you have your powers too!" Raina observed happily.

"Great, the whole families back together. Now, back onto the real issue; Amora's still out there, we need a plan." Tony spoke up.

"And Thanos." Clint added.

"We need to focus on Thanos more than Amora, her destined path is already set." Raina declared as she turned to face the group.

"How do you know that?" Maria Hill spoke up finally as she walked over to the younger woman. Raina just raised her head and smiled.

"'Cus, I'm the fan." Raina said proudly. Rachel sighed and slowly placed a hand over her face.

"Doctor Who Rain? Really?" Rachel laughed as she looked incredulously at her friend.

"But she is correct," Loki said, "Amora is not an issue for us."

"And how exactly do you know?" Nick asked Loki skeptically.

"Trust me," Loki said.

"Trust you?" Nick asked angrily, "After you killed hundreds of people? Destroyed one of the largest cities in the world?"

"He didn't do it," Raina argued.

The Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel looked at her as if she needed psychiatric attention.

"She's right," Rachel said, stepping forward.

"And how do you know?" Fury said to Rachel. Rachel glanced back to Steve, unsure as whether or not to speak the truth.

Tony stepped forward and said, "Well," he started, "As you know, we were taken to an alternate version of reality. And, as you might also be aware, inter-reality travel isn't something that anyone else has yet to do. We're not saying that this place is more real than the other, but it would seem as their reality might have allowed for them to see some things that we didn't know about. It could be that they're all soothsayers and know the truth before we'll ever see it. Or it could be, that through the cracks of reality, we all saw tiny glimpses of things that are occurring in the past, present and future. And it could mean that all of us saw something else about Loki that no one is meant to see and we don't want to interrupt any time-space continuum by telling you what we saw. Either way, it doesn't matter, because if you don't trust them, you don't trust us."

Nick Fury looked at Tony for a moment, "Okay," he said, nodding, "For now."

"Okay, now that that's all settled, I need a shower cuz I smell like inter-dimensional travel." Raina stated as she looked around the room at the rest of the Avengers.

"Inter-dimensional travel has a smell?" Rachel mused as she raised an eyebrow.

"Apparently." Loki chuckled.

"Did you just say that I smell?" Raina gaped at him.

"Did I?" Loki lied. Raina glared, unamused."I do not recall saying such things."

"Yeah, I'm sure you don't. But seriously, I need a shower so, Nat," Raina turned towards the assassin, "Is there a bathroom I can use somewhere in this floating fortress?" Rachel snorted at her choice of words. Natasha glanced towards Fury who gave her a wary look.

"This way." Natasha motioned to Raina to follow her as she started down one of the hallways, with Loki in tow right behind Raina. Natasha led them to a room with a simple bed and bathroom. "When you're done go straight back to the bridge and for god's sake do not prank any of the soldiers."

"Me?! Prank innocent people?" Raina held her hands up in defense as she faked a hurt feelings look on her face. Natasha gave her one last stern look before turning and going back to the bridge. Raina and Loki shut themselves into the room right after Natasha turned and walked away. Loki was immediately slammed up against the door as Raina pressed her lips onto his, capturing him in an intense kiss. He immediately responded by wrapping his arms around her waist, his hands resting on her posterior. Raina moaned into his mouth as he gave it a squeeze. Her hands began to travel up and down his armour covering his torso. Finally, seconds later, Raina hesitantly pulled away from him.

"I should really get in the shower so we can get back to the others, care to join me?" Raina smirked up at him, a smirk which he returned with one of his own.


	25. Chapter 25

Loki sat on the bed inside the small room, finishing putting his armour back on, waiting for Raina to finish getting dressed.  
  
“Okay, wet hair and no hair dryer, what to do....” Raina thought as she stared into the mirror in the bathroom. “Ah, yeah, that's it.” Raina grinned. “Now, just concentrate...”  
  
“Rain, what on Midgard are you doing in there?” Loki called as he stood and started into the bathroom.  
  
“Holy shit!” Raina screamed out suddenly. The next thing Loki knew, there was a strong wind that knocked him onto the floor. The mattress of the bed flew upward and hit the ceiling before falling back down onto the floor next to Loki. Some S.H.I.E.L.D. uniforms that were in the dresser flew out and around the room. The wind finally died down as Loki groaned, attempting to sit up, brushing random objects off of him.  
  
“Rain, Loki! What was all that! Are you two okay?” Pepper's voice came from outside the door. Loki managed to stand up and went to the door to answer.  
  
“Yes.” Loki said upon opening the door.  
  
“Oh my god, what happened?” Pepper asked as soon as she saw his hair in disarray. She poked her head into the room, observing all the damage done.  
  
“I'm still not entirely sure.” Loki sighed as he brushed his hand over his hair. Raina appeared from the bathroom and walked over to the two, her hair completely messed up and pointing in every way possible.  
  
“Um, so, apparently wind drying my hair is bad.” She said sheepishly as she looked towards the other two.  
  
+~*+  
  
They all stared after Rain, Loki and Natasha as they walked out.  
  
“She’s, uh,” Coulson started.  
  
“Yeah,” Rachel said, “I know.”  
  
“So,” Bruce started, “We need to focus on finding Thanos.”  
  
“How?” Natasha asked.  
  
“What did he steal Thor?  Maybe it can be tracked.”  
  
“He took the Infinity Gauntlet and the tesseract.”  
  
Rachel looked back at Bruce and Tony hopefully, but Natasha quickly stepped forward and said, “Do you either of you have the tracking algorithm?”  
  
“Of course,” Tony said, rolling his eyes.  
  
“So we’re to assume that he’s going to be wherever the tesseract is?”  
  
“Let’s not assume that he’s going to be where the tesseract is.  How else can we track him?” Steve asked.  
  
“The tesseract and the gauntlet have the same energy signature,” Rachel said.  
  
“And how exactly do you know _that_?” Fury said.  
  
“Lucky guess?” Rachel said as if she was asking a question.  
  
“How does she know?”  
  
“Again,” Tony said, “The wonders of inter-reality travel.” He said as he sent Rachel a warning glance.  Fury did not miss the exchange between Tony and Rachel, but let it slide.  
  
“Then it’s a plan,” Bruce said, “We’ll find him using the tracking algorithm and then we’ll go from there.”  
  
“Good,” Tony said, clapping his hands, “Let’s get to it.”  
  
+~*~+

  
“Rain come back here! Tony and Bruce are never going to be able to get anything done if you're in there bugging them!” Rachel called after her younger friend as she skipped down the hallways of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.  
  
“I'm sure she is plenty aware.” Loki stated as he walked swiftly beside Rachel.  
  
“When has that ever stopped her from doing anything?” Clint laughed.  Raina had managed to drag them all into checking up on Bruce and Tony's progress on tracking Thanos.  
  
“Psh! I'm just strong spirited is all, and stubborn. Those are my best qualities!” Raina continued skipping down the hallways, ignoring the weird glances of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as she passed by. Finally, they reached the lab and walked in.  
  
“Oh it's Rain...” Tony acknowledged the group. “I'm pretty sure that we're not going to be able to concentrate with you here.”  
  
“Oh please, you'll be done tracking Thanos in a couple seconds.” Raina waved him off as she walked over to look over Bruce's shoulder at the tracking screen.  
  
“She's right.” Bruce spoke up as he looked at the screen.  
  
“Thanos is in Norway? That's kinda cliché.” Raina mused. “Well, let's get suited up guys!”  
  
“Ugh, excuse me? 'Us'? You three are not coming with us.” Tony stated, crossing his arms.  
  
“What! You can't stop us! And it's not like were all defenseless now!” Raina protested.  
  
“Thanos has hurt us all, and you need all the help you can get to take him down.” Rachel stood up for Raina.  
  
“It's not that we don't believe you can hold your own it's just that,” Steve began to explain.  
  
“If S.H.I.E.L.D. knew of your abilities they wouldn't let you leave without 'examining' you three.” Bruce concluded in a quiet voice. Raina looked over to Loki for support.  
  
“I'm not going to try and stop you.” Loki immediately spoke.  
  
“I mean, I think it's a little late to hide Rain's abilities and if S.H.I.E.L.D. tried anything on her Loki or Thor could always just teleport her to Asgard.” Clint added.  
  
“Hey, what can I say, subtly is not my best attribute.” Raina shrugged. “But seriously, we need to leave right now before anyone else realises that we've figured out Thanos' location.” Without further arguments, the group quickly went to their respective rooms and changed, meeting back up at the flight deck, Gwen, Rachel and Raina, changing into some generic suits of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s, looking much like Maria Hill as they did so.  Rachel complaining about the fact that they had to wear wedge shoes with their suits.  
  
“Where is Tony?” Thor voiced for the rest of the group as he looked around the Quinjet.  
  
“Don't worry guys, I'll be along shortly. Go on ahead and head out.” Tony's voice came through their ear pieces they had all grabbed as they headed out to the jet.  
  
“Tell Pepper I said 'Hi'!” Raina called to him.  
  
“Will do, kid.” Natasha and Clint situated themselves at the pilot's seats. The rest of the group buckled themselves into the seats.  
  
“Everybody strapped in? Next stop Norway.” Clint announced over the jet's intercom system.  
  
+~*~+  
  
“Rain shut up I'm trying to concentrate!” Gwen shouted. She had her eyes closed as she tried to concentrate. They had been flying for over four hours and were almost to Norway. Rachel and Gwen had taken to trying to figure out their powers, while Raina had made it her job to annoy them as much as possible.  
  
“Seriously Rain, if we want to be able to help we're going to have to figure out these powers. Why don't you sit over there and figure out yours?” Rachel spoke calmly, trying to stop the younger woman from causing any more trouble.  
  
“What's to figure out? Emotions are the key, obviously.” As Raina spoke, she had summoned up a mini cyclone in the palm of her hand. “Oh my Odin! Loki, quick, ice powers!”  
  
“What?” Loki raised a curious eyebrow.  
  
“You heard me.” Raina said snidely. Loki sighed as he held his hand out over hers. Raina's held cyclone quickly turned into a mini blizzard, her hands frosting over. “Ah, cold cold!” Raina winced as she quickly stopped the cyclone, shaking her hand rabidly. Loki and Thor could not stop themselves from laughing as they watched Raina cradle her hand in an attempt to warm it up. “Yeah yeah, laugh it up you two.”  
  
“Hey Rain?” Gwen called.  
  
“Yeah?” Gwen did not answer, immediately after Raina spoke she burst into laughter, holding her sides and stomach. “S-stop! Gwen!” Raina managed to get out in the midst of all her laughing. Finally, Raina stopped and was catching her breath.  
  
“I'm going to have so much fun with this.” Gwen smiled.  
  
“Does this mean Bruce'll have more control over the Other guy?” Rachel asked curiously.  
  
“Looks like it.” Gwen smiled happily over at Bruce who sat next to her.  
  
“Okay guys, get ready.” Clint's voice came through the intercom.  
  
“We'll be landing in ten minutes.” Natasha spoke up. “What's on your end Tony?”  
  
“Let's see...looks like he's got the local army working for him. A couple tanks here and there.” Tony described to them.  
  
“They are more than likely being controlled by Thanos.” Loki added.  
  
“Civilians basically.” Steve spoke up, “More or less, we can't just go and kill them all.”  
  
“Cool, so our powers will be awesome then.”  Raina said proudly. “So what's the plan Cap?” Everyone turned to look at Steve as the gears immediately began to turn in his head.  
  
“The main plan is to get to Thanos and get back the Gauntlet and Tesseract at all costs. Thor, Tony,”  
  
“And me.” Raina added in quickly.  
  
“-and Bruce will go in from the top.”  
  
“No Rain.” Rachel scolded.  
  
“Why not?!”  
  
“I've already got a job for you. You have decent control over your powers right?” Steve asked.  
  
“Yeah.” Raina proudly answered.  
  
“You and Loki will give us cover. Don't let them see us. The rest of us will go in on foot will go in on foot.” Everyone started unbuckling and began to prepare themselves. “Everyone ready?”  
  
“Aye!”  Thor shouted as he raised his hammer.  
  
“Let's kick some Thanos ass!” Raina yelled. Thor opened up the hatch, then jumped up with Bruce right behind him.  
  
“Bruce!” Gwen grabbed his hand, stopping him. Bruce turned away from the hatch and looked at her. “You and the big guy go get them!” She smiled up at him. Bruce suddenly felt anger that was so intense that he had never felt before.  
  
“Thanks.” He smiled back as jumped out of the hatch, changing seconds later.  
  
“Alright, landing in less than five seconds.” Natasha announced.  
  
“Rain, Loki!” Steve yelled.  
  
“On it!” Raina jumped up, pulling Loki with her to the opened hatch. “Hope you guys don't mind the cold!”  Loki intertwined his fingers with hers as they both held their free hands outwards of the jet. A frosty wind flew out from Loki's hand and mixed with the violent winds that Raina was creating; Raina glanced over at Loki, worried, as he skin began to slowly turn a light blue shade. “Nat, Clint, can you see to land?” Raina yelled back trying to confirm that her trick was working.  
  
“We're good, landing now.” Clint answered. Natasha and him turned off the Quinjet and joined the others at the opened hatch; Natasha making sure her guns were loaded and Clint readying his bow and arrows.  
  
“Rachel-” Steve began.  
  
“Gwen and I will stay behind you all, but we're still in this fight.” Rachel confirmed.  
  
“You two know how to use a gun?” Natasha motioned to Rachel and Gwen.  
  
“Yes.” They answered in unison.  
  
“Here,” Natasha tossed them some pistols. “Wouldn't be right to leave you without weapons, even with your, abilities.”  
  
“Well thanks then.” Raina spoke up. Loki rolled his eyes as he conjured up a simple staff and handed it to her. “Ooh, never mind, I'm good.”              
  
Steve looked at Rachel, “Are you sure you want to do this?”  
  
“Of course,” Rachel said nodding, “I can't let you guys have all the fun.”  
  
Steve smiled at her and said, “Let's go!”  
  
Clint, Gwen, Natasha, Loki, Raina, Steve and Rachel all ran out of the back of the Quinjet and onto the ground.  As it turned out, Tony had been right; at least one platoon of soldiers had been turned into Thanos's set of mind slaves.  Rachel thought that they looked exactly like Loki when he had been under the tesseract's control; they all had blue, tired eyes with blank stares on their faces.   Despite the blank stares on the soldier's faces, as soon as they saw the Avengers, Loki, Rachel, Raina and Gwen, they started to attack.  
  
Rachel, Rain and Gwen immediately went towards them, making liars of themselves by not waiting for the rest of the Avengers or Loki to cover them and began to push the soldiers back.  Raina used her air powers to force them to lose their footing and fall while Rachel ran up and commanded them to stay where they were and Gwen jarred them out of their mind control by pushing self-reliance in their minds.  
  
Natasha rolled her eyes and did what the rest of the Avengers were doing, knocking the soldiers unconscious while trying not to fatally harm them.  
  
“You said you'd stay behind us!” Steve yelled at Rachel as he came and punched a soldier that had been about to shoot her.  
  
“I'm a pathological liar!” Rachel laughed as she put her hand on a random soldier, forcing him to sit down and surrender his weapon.  
  
Steve rolled his eyes as they continued fighting.  Loki jumped in front of Raina to protect her from the bullets of a random gun.  
  
“This is so much fun!” Raina yelled.  
  
“Focus on fighting!” Clint yelled back at her.  
  
Gwen laughed at her friend, “You tell her Clint!”  
  
Rachel looked over at her friends, enjoying the moment, then looked over at Steve, who was being choked by a random soldier.  Rachel watched in horror as another soldier aimed his gun at the love of her life.  
  
Rachel threw her arm out and screamed Steve's name, thinking that it would be useless to do so until Steve was thrown a few feet out of the way just as the gun went off.  Because of her scream, the majority of the Avengers, Gwen, Raina and Loki were staring at Rachel in shock, realising that she just moved a person with her mind.  
  
“You have telekinesis!” Raina yelled happily at her friend.  
  
“That's nice!” Rachel yelled back at her as they all advanced, “Focus on not dying.”  Rachel then ran over to Steve, “I'm so sorry,” she said as she gave him back his shield, which had been dropped earlier.  
  
“Are you kidding, you just saved my life.”  
  
“But I threw you ten feet in the air,” Rachel argued.  
  
“I've had worse, and not with intentions as good as yours.”  
  
Rachel smiled as she stood up and offered her hand to Steve.  
  
“I feel like it's useless for me to say it to you,” Steve started, “But be careful.”  
  
“Always,” Rachel said, smiling. Tony and Thor flew down to land next to the group as they finished incapacitating the controlled soldiers, Hulk following seconds later as he destroyed the last tank that was stationed at the front of the large, plain building.  
  
“All clear on the outside Cap.” Tony reported.  
  
“Okay then, Thor, Tony, Natasha, Hulk, and I will go in through the front. Everyone else find the back door. We'll come in through the two sides and overwhelm him. Let's take this guy down!” Captain called out. The team broke up into two groups and headed to their spots.  
  
“Wait for Clint's signal that they're in position before we attack.” Steve said into his earpiece and to the group he was leading.  
  
“Roger that Rogers.” Raina called back. Rachel rolled her eyes.  
  
“Really Rain?”  
  
“What, are you unamoosed?” Raina giggled. “Hey, I've got an idea.”  
  
“Rain-” Rachel squealed as they were suddenly levitated up into the air. Looking over at her younger friend, Rachel kept quiet; Raina had her eyes closed and was concentrating intensely. Gwen placed a hand onto her shoulder, helping her to concentrate. Mere seconds later, they landed at the back entrance of the building and walked in.  
  
“In position Cap.” Clint called through the ear pieces.  
  
“Let's do this!”


	26. Chapter 26

Thanos stood in front of a series of monitors watching the Avengers getting into position. “Strategize all you want, you are nothing but ants to me.”  He smiled to himself as he watched them sneak around the building. “You will be defeated one way or another.” Thanos said to himself as he admired the Infinity Gauntlet on his hand.  
  
“Thanos! Give yourself up!” Steve demanded as he walked into the room followed by the others in his group. Tony was holding up his hand, ready to blast at a moment’s notice, Thor held his hammer up as Hulk beside him breathed in deeply, ready to jump and attack at any time.  
  
“Hand over the Gauntlet and we might not destroy you, much.” Raina yelled out as she conjured up some mini cyclones, her hair blowing swiftly behind her, holding her conjured staff at her side. The others came up behind her, holding guns, or in Clint's case a bow; Loki held some throwing knives.  
  
“How can you, so puny mortals hope to defeat me, a master of Death? Even with those so-called gods of yours, you are nothing to me!” Thanos held up his gantlet hand and pointed it towards the Hulk. “Let's see how you can handle fighting your own.”  
  
“That won't be a problem!” Raina yelled as her and Loki attacked Thanos at the same time. Raina hit Thanos with her staff, using her wind to throw off his aim at Hulk. Loki threw a hand full of knives at Thanos' face, causing him to move and loose his attempted control over theHulk. Gwen ran over to him, placing her hands onto his large arm.  
  
“You got this big guy, shake it off!” Gwen told him. Hulk looked down at the small woman, giving her a large grin.  
  
“Let's see how you handle five of me!” As Thanos spoke, one of the five gems lit up, the light coming up and out of the gauntlet and turning into five other different coloured Thanos'. The real one waved his hand, sending Loki flying away and back handing Raina, knocking her into a wall.  
  
“Rain!” Rachel screamed out. Growling, Rachel raised her hands up and threw two of the Thanos' through the walls, causing them to dissipate.  
  
“Damn.” Tony commented as he fly into another Thanos, blasting him with his hands. Thor flew over to another Thanos and began to bash him with Mjolnir. Clint and Natasha stayed back, shooting bullets and arrows at all of the remaining Thanoses at any openings they could find. The Hulk took to bashing whatever Thanos was sent his way. Steve and Rachel were occupying themselves dealing with one of the other Thanoses. Loki ran over to the unconscious Raina lying next to the wall.  
  
“Rain, are you alright? Rain!” Loki lightly shook her shoulders. Gwen snuck over to the two, passed all the fighting.  
  
“Is she okay?” Gwen asked, kneeling down next to Loki. Raina let out a groan as she came to, Loki helping her to stand.  
  
“I'm okay,” Raina slurred slightly as she used Loki and her staff to keep herself up. “My back hurts like fuck. I'm so going to fuck his shit up.” Gwen placed her hand onto Raina's arm.  
  
“You can do this, but don't let your anger get the best of you. Be confident in your abilities.” Gwen told her as she helped Raina to control her emotions.  
  
“Got it. Let's do this! For the nine realms!” Raina shouted as she charged forward to the real Thanos, with Loki at her side. Gwen ran over to stand just behind Clint and Natasha. Hulk let out a roar as he brought down his fists on one of the fake Thanos, crushing it. Thor and Tony had managed to back their Thanoses back to back, crushing them in one shot as Thor shot lightning while Tony blasted them with his suit.  
  
“You think you can defeat me! I am the master of Death!” Thanos was passed the point of pissed off.  
  
“Oh really?  How do you expect to defeat us when we've nearly destroyed your Infinity Gems? Yeah, I know how that thing works.” Raina grinned as she pointed the end of her staff mere inches away from his throat.  
  
“Hand over the gauntlet Thanos!” Thor demanded.  
  
“Don't even think of trying to control any of us, you won't get too far.” Loki grinned.  
  
“You may have defeated me now mortals, but this is not the end.” Thanos grinned. He began to raise his hand in an attempt to do one last attack.  
  
“Fuck no!” Raina yelled out as she tackled him to the ground, her staff over his throat, holding his wrists to the floor all the while; she was taking the air out of his lungs.  
  
“Rain enough!” Rachel quickly stepped forward to pull her friend off of the alien.  
  
“Stop!” Tony grabbed one of her shoulders. Raina knocked them back with her wind.  
  
“Because of you Loki got killed!” Raina yelled out as she continued to suffocate him. Suddenly, Loki went forward and wrapped his arms around her upper torso, pulling Raina up and off of Thanos. Thor, Tony, and Steve immediately went forward and grabbed the now unconscious, keeping him secured; Thor took the Gauntlet off of Thanos's hand. Gwen stepped forward towards Raina, calming her down, and then went to Hulk. Looking up towards his face she locked eyes the giant. Hulk nodded down at her and Gwen placed a gently hand onto his arm, aiding him in quickly turning back into Bruce.  
  
“Well, that was fun.” Clint spoke up.  
  
“Wait, where's the cube?” Natasha looked around. Tony immediately did a search of the area.  
  
“There's no other object around here giving off the energy signature, and this was the only place in the entire world where it was located.” Tony said questionably.  
  
“That can only mean one thing; Thanos absorbed the Tesseract into the Gauntlet.” Raina explained. “Can we leave now? I'm hungry.”  
  
Rachel was the first to break into laughter as one by one, the rest of the group followed. Raina frowned. “Good to know my misery makes you all happy.”  
  
“Very,” Loki smiled down at her, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her into him.

  
“We must take him back to Asgard to face punishment,” Thor said.  
  
“Can’t we just lock him up and grab some fast food then you guys can take him to Asgard?”  
  
“Yes,” Loki said, hiding the crushing disappointment that he felt, “We can restrain him and then get you something to sustain you for a while.”  
  
Rachel noticed the look on Loki’s face, “Food sounds good,” she said, knowing that Loki had taken Rain’s words incorrectly.

 

They first stored Thanos on the Quinjet, then got on themselves, Loki created a cell for Thanos on the Quinjet, so that the chance of him escaping lowered dramatically. As they flew back to New York, the Avengers discussed their perceived problem with Gwen and Rachel.

“So what are we going to do about Gwen and Rachel?”

 

“We’re right here, you know.” Rachel interjected snippily.

 

“Yes,” Tony said exasperatedly, “We know.”

 

“Well can you not pretend as though we’re children?”

 

“Now you know how we feel when we’re around you.”

 

“Stop it,” Steve interjected before Rachel and Tony got into a fight. Rachel sighed but said nothing.

 

“I still don’t get why we have to keep things secretive,” Gwen said.

 

“Because we don’t trust S.H.I.E.L.D.” Bruce said to Gwen.

 

“We really don’t know what they’d do,” Tony said seriously.

 

“And we’re not going to take any chances,” Steve said.

 

“They don’t really even know anything about your reality, or the comics.”

 

“You didn’t tell them?” Rachel asked.

 

“No,” Natasha said from the cockpit, “If we did, they’d probably try and figure out a way to get to your reality to find the comics and get ahead of the game.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“And we can’t let them find out now because we don’t want to fight them or for you two to go on the run,” Bruce said, “Because it’s not fun or easy.”

 

“We know,” Raina, Rachel and Gwen answered simultaneously.

 

“Oh yeah.  We just need to make sure that you guys can get your extra abilities under control and not be like Raina and let people know.”

 

“In my defense, I was distraught because I thought I had lost the love of my life.”

 

“Raina I’m-”

 

“Oh ye of little faith,” Rachel giggled while everyone else cringed at her words.

 

“Yeah yeah, just keep rubbing it in.”

 

“Will do kid.”

 

“ _Anyway_ ,” Gwen interrupted, “We already know all of this, why are we talking about it again?”

 

“Because we need you two to be careful and you need to understand that there’s a lot we can protect you against, but you need to help us out a little too.”

 

“Okay.”

 

“We will.”

 

“Good thing _I_ don’t have to worry about that,” Raina laughed.

 

Rachel rolled her eyes in response and they continued the majority of the voyage in silence.  When they got back, Thor immediately took charge and went to talk with Fury about Thanos, with everyone else staying back, but visible.  Loki pulled Raina away from the group to talk to her.

 

“Rain,” Loki started, unsure of himself, “Are you going back to Asgard with me?”

 

Raina looked at Loki with confusion, “Yes, of course. That was the plan.”

 

A look of relief spread across Loki’s face just after Rachel glanced over to the pair and, upon realising what their conversation was about, reached for Steve’s hand.  Steve looked down at her and then in the direction that she was staring at.

 

“He’s asking her to leave me.”

 

“Rachel,” Steve started quietly, “You knew it was going to happen.”

 

“I know,” she said, close to tears.

 

“It’s going to be okay,” Steve said as he pulled Rachel within his grasp.

 

Raina pulled out of their embrace and said, “But I- I want one more day with Rae.”

 

“Of course love, you can have anything you want.”

 

Raina smiled up at Loki, “Okay.”

 


	27. Chapter 27

“Mufasa! No!” Raina yelled from her place on one of Tony’s couches.  Loki had agreed to give Raina from the night that the got back to New York until the evening of the next day, where he would pick her up from a pre-planned destination.

 

“Scar’s such an ass,” Rachel commented as she threw a couple of pieces of popcorn in her mouth.

 

“I’m so glad that you think that,” Tony said sarcastically, “And will you please stop talking?”

 

“Never!” The pair replied in unison, both throwing popcorn at Tony.

 

“I’m glad you’re getting shipped off tomorrow, less time for you to cause damage.”

 

“You shouldn’t have said that Tony,” Rachel responded coolly, though Steve could see the effect that Tony’s words had on her, “She might get a last minute prank idea.”

 

“No Simba! It’s not your fault! Don’t let Scar trick you! He’s a horrible uncle and a liar.”

 

“Gwen, why the hell are _you_ yelling at the TV?”

 

Gwen glanced over to Bruce, “Because Raina made it seem fun.”

 

“Well _I_ would never say that about Scar, he is fucking awesome.”

 

“He’s the bad guy.”

 

“I have a type.”

 

“Yes Rain,” Rachel commented, “We know.”

 

“Oh ha ha.”

 

“I thought it was funny,” Gwen supplied.

 

“Thank you Gwen, at least someone appreciates my humour,” Rachel smiled.

 

“Ugh, just watch the movie,” Clint interjected.

 

“But we’ve seen it.”

 

“Yeah, now is socialization time.”

 

“Then why did you beg me to get the damn thing?”

 

“For background noise.”

 

“I give up!” Tony yelled, throwing himself back on the couch.

 

“We knew you would.”

 

“You’re both being obnoxious,” Natasha said.

 

Raina and Rachel’s only response was to start laughing at everyone, causing them to groan and Natasha, Tony and Clint to leave the room.

 

“No!”

 

“Wait!”

 

“Come back!”

 

“Don’t you want to spend as much time as you can with me?”

 

“Yeah! She’s leaving tomorrow!”

 

“You’re children!” Natasha said, popping her head back into the room momentarily.

 

“Thanks!”

 

“We appreciate it!”

 

“And a special thanks to those of you who remain.”

 

“You’re the ones we like more anyway.”

 

“That’s not nice Rain.”

 

“Don’t care. I’m leaving tomorrow forever.”

 

Steve watched as Rachel all but stopped herself from cringing and glanced to the television, “Oh look, Timon and Pumbaa.”

 

“Ooh ‘Hakuna Matata’. I like this one.”

 

“It’s the best!”

 

“It’s not _that_ great Rae.”

 

“Shut your mouth.  It is.”

 

“I like ‘Be Prepared’ better.”

 

“You would, and you’d also be wrong.”

 

 "No I wouldn't. You're just a goodie two shoes."

 

"I am badass and you know it."

 

"You _wish_."

 

"Kid, I don't need wishes to prove that I'm awesome."

 

"She _is_ pretty awesome, especially dealing with you all the time."

 

"Yeah," Bruce said, agreeing with Gwen, "You guys match each other, there's not one better than the other."

 

"How diplomatic Bruce," Raina.

 

"I try."

 

"Effort's paying off."

 

"Shh, you're ruining my song."

 

"No I'm not; it wasn't that great to begin with."

 

"I don't like you."

 

"No, you love me."

 

Rachel laughed, "You got me there," she said as she hugged her friend.

 

The pair of them eventually calmed down enough for the rest of the movie to be viewed in relative quietness and for Natasha, Clint and Tony to come back in and sit with everyone without much more argument.  They watched a couple more movies at Raina's request before Rain and Rachel ended up in one of Tony's many spare bedrooms.  As they got ready for bed in borrowed clothes, the two friends were quiet, barely speaking a word to one another.  They had been lying in the bed for a couple of hours before Rachel leaned over to Raina and asked, "Are you awake?"

 

"Yes my precious."

 

"I'm not the Ring of Power thank you very much."

 

"Close enough."

 

"You're leaving tomorrow," Rachel said in a hollow voice.

 

"That I am."

 

“Please be careful and don’t piss off the gods.”

 

“Can’t make any promises there.”

 

"I’m being serious; don't get yourself killed, okay kid?"

 

"If I do, Hel would just bring me back."

 

"Raina," Rachel sobbed, "That's not funny."

 

Rain's eyes widened in shock and she reached behind her and, after a moment, turned on the light.  She turned back to face Rachel and saw her friend with tears streaking her face.

 

"Rachel, why are crying?"

 

"Why aren't you?"

 

"One of us has to be strong right, that's how it works right?"

 

"You're mean."

 

“A little; I’m really enjoying the fact that you’re crying in front of someone else.  That’s nice.”

 

“Raina!” Rachel choked out after a few seconds.  Raina reached forward and pulled Rachel closer and into a hug.

 

“It’s not like I’m dying Rae,” Raina started.

 

“It’s not like I can just call you,” Rachel argued.  It was at that moment that Raina really started to realise that everything she was going to do now was a choice between Rachel and Loki and Raina unconsciously tightened her grip on Rachel, who wrapped her arms around her younger friend in response.  As she realised that there would be no more late night writing parties, Avenger movie marathons, waking Rachel up so that she could make food in the middle of the night, late trips to the store for alcohol, pulling pranks, getting them into trouble that only Rachel could get them out of, being able to go to Rachel’s bed when she was feeling sick, or even Rachel just sitting next to her on a couch, Raina started hyperventilating.  The true weight of what she was about to do starting to crash onto her shoulders.  She and Rachel had been attached at the hip for ten years now and Raina was about to yank them apart.  As soon as Rachel realised that Raina was hyperventilating, she stopped crying and start trying to calm Raina down.  Rachel quickly moved the both of them into sitting positions and put her hands on Raina’s face.

 

“Rain, breathe,” Rachel said soothingly, knowing that she wasn’t going to be that effective with her cheeks stained with tears.

 

“Rain,” Rachel said more authoritatively, “In,” Rachel commanded, taking a breath in, “And out.”  They continued like that for a few more moments until they were breathing in time together.

 

“Better?”

 

“Can you come too?” Rain impulsively asked, not wanting to have to be separated from either Loki or Rachel.  Rachel stared at Raina with an arrested look; she didn’t want to have to make the decision either.

 

“You can’t ask me that Rain,” Rachel groaned.

 

“But,” Raina started, “I don’t want to choose.  I don’t want to choose between you and Loki.”

 

“Rain,” Rachel started softly, “I don’t want to choose between you and Steve.”

 

“He can come too,” Raina said quickly.

 

“And make him choose between me and everyone else?  That’s not fair Rain.”

 

“Why do we have to choose?  Maybe we can just go home, bring Steve and Loki with us and just live normal lives.”

 

“Even _before_ we met the Avengers, we didn’t have normal lives.”

 

“Rachel-” Raina didn’t finish her thought because at that moment she started sobbing.  Rachel pulled Raina closer and held her as she cried.  Rachel said nothing as she rocked Raina back and forth and rubbed her back as she cried until she felt nothing.

 

“It’s not like it’s going to be forever kid,” Rachel stated when Raina pulled away to wipe her eyes, “Loki can bring you back any time.”

 

“I don’t want that; I want you to come up to Asgard with me.  We could just bring everyone and have them come back down here when they’re needed.”

 

“It’s a nice idea kid, but we can’t do that and you know it.”

 

“Rachel, please.”  Rachel looked at Raina’s pleading eyes and nearly agreed to go, only changing her mind when she thought of Steve.

 

“Don’t ask this of me,” Rachel begged, “Please Raina, don’t ask me to choose.”

 

“But I don’t make the difficult decisions.”

 

“You do now; welcome to adulthood.  It sucks.”

 

“I want to go with Loki; I love him, but I don’t want to leave you.”

 

“I won’t ask you to stay if that will help.”

 

“It won’t,” Rain sighed, “Because I know you don’t want me to go.”

 

“Yeah, but I’d never ask you.  Besides, wasn’t it you who wanted to beat up Sigyn?  And meet Sif and the Warrior’s Three?  And you wanted to try your hand at fucking up as much shit as possible in Asgard, remember?”

 

“It won’t be as fun without you there to yell at me.”

 

“You could always ask Loki to yell at you.”

 

“Yeah, but then we’d probably end up having sex, so it’s not really the same thing.”

 

“Oh really?”  Rachel laughed, “I would hope that you consider it a little bit different then.”

 

“You’re not mad?”

 

“About what?”

 

“Me and Loki…” Raina trailed off, not finishing the sentence.

 

“Raina, despite what I tell you, you’re an adult and you can make your own decisions.  As long as he isn’t forcing you to do something you don’t want.”

 

“Gee, thanks.”

 

“No problem kid,” Rachel laughed, but then after a moment said, more seriously, “If you love him, you should be with him.”

 

“But I love you too.”

 

“I know, but Loki’s more of a soul mate and I’m more of a best friend.”

 

“You’re a soul mate too, just a different kind of soul mate.”

 

“We are kinda sister soul mates,” Rachel smiled.

 

“Then why are you trying so hard to get me to go?”

 

“Any way that we do this, someone’s going to get hurt.  We can’t go back home, we’ve done that already and that definitely didn’t work. You can’t stay here, Loki would get hurt, he’d follow you, but we know that he’d miss Asgard too much.  I can’t go with you because then _both_ me and Steve would get hurt; so the best possible solution is for us to be apart, yes, we’ll both miss each other, but then we’d be with the people we love, the person we came back here for.”

 

In spite of her feelings, Raina smiled.

 

“What?” Rachel asked.

 

“You just said you loved Steve, you’ve never said that.  Ever.”

 

Rachel chuckled, “I’ve said it to him.  I’m pretty sure that counts.”

 

“Yeah, but telling someone else is important too.”

 

“If you say so kid.”

 

“I do,” Raina smiled, “You’ve never said you loved anyone outside of your family or me.”

 

“I was well aware of that the first time I tried to tell him.”

 

“Tried?” Raina asked curiously.

 

“Oh,” Rachel started, blushing, “Yeah, the first time was before they left and it didn’t go so well. I said something along the lines of ‘I might possibly, maybe, could have, in the future be close to nearly being in love with you.’”

 

“Wow Rae,” Raina laughed, “You really let your sentiments be known.”

 

“Yeah,” Rachel said, joining in and laughing.

 

After the pair of them had calmed down, Raina asked, “What did he say?”

 

“Nothing.”

 

“What?” Raina asked, enraged and starting to climb out of the bed.

 

“Hold _on_ ,” Rachel said as she yanked her friend back down to the bed.

 

“I’ll get back to you after I go kill him.”

 

“Rain,” Rachel said, causing Raina to stop struggling, “He thought he was doing what was best for both of us; he thought we were never going to see each other again and he wanted me to move on after he left,” Rachel quickly explained.

 

“Both of you are both so prone to self-sacrifice, I’m not sure that’s a healthy relationship, and I still have to go kill him because I know that would have hurt you.  And why didn’t you tell me?”

 

“We had other things going on, and I’m telling you now.  Also, I could go kill Loki for the same reasons and you didn’t tell me about you killing your virginity.”

 

“Killing?  Why so violent?”

 

“You’re violent.”

 

Raina rolled her eyes and linked her arm with Rachel, “We should stop keeping secrets.”

 

“Yep.”

 

“Do you really think we’re going to be okay?”

 

Rachel hesitated for a moment, “Yes.  But it’s not just going to happen.  It’s going to hurt for a while Rain.”

 

“How long?”

 

“The first year at least.”

 

“Year?” Raina asked, her voice rising nearly an octave.

 

“Yeah, I mean, it’s not like you’re going to come back down every day or that I’m going to go up to Asgard.  Ever.”

 

“I’m sure that Loki, and mostly Thor, would love to have you up there.”

 

“It’s going to be okay Rain.  We’ll muddle through this like we do everything else.”

 

Raina hugged Rachel, “Okay.”

 

Rachel wrapped her arms around Rain and they hugged for a few seconds.

 

When they pulled apart, Raina looked over to Rachel and curiously asked, “Have you and Steve, what’s the word?  Consummated your relationship?”

 

“Honesty hour’s over.”

 

“You popped Steve’s cherry?”

 

“Ugh, shut _up_ Rain,” Rachel said with a light blush running over her face.

 

“Oh my Odin, you did.  That’s why you couldn’t be angry at me for having sex with Loki.  Tell me,” Raina started cheekily as she put one of her hands to her chin, “How does it feel to take someone’s virginity?”

 

“Why don’t you ask Loki?”

 

It was Raina’s turn to have a light blush appear on her skin, “Well I already know how that happened, so why don’t you go ahead and spill some details?”

 

“Time for bed, for real this time.  Go to sleep, everyone’s going to want to spend time with you, last day on Midgard and everything.”

 

“You’re no fun.”

 

“Steve would disagree.”

 


	28. Chapter 28

"Rain! Rain where the hell did you go?" Rachel yelled after her friend as she walked blindly through Stark Tower after breakfast. "Ugh, you know what...Jarvis?"

"Yes Miss Flyte?"

"Where is Raina Fox at this moment?"

"Miss Fox is currently in the garage."

"Thanks Jarvis!" Rachel shouted as she started to jog to the garage. "Rain what the hell are you doing?" She asked upon walking up to her younger friend. Raina was currently trying to use her wind to unlock one of Tony's cars, a silver Maserati. "Rain..."

"Chill dude." Raina spoke as she continued to focus on unlocking the car.

"What are you doing Rain?" Rachel sighed.

"I just want to go for a joy ride, wanna join me?"

"You are not stealing Tony's car."

"I'm not stealing anything, just borrowing, and you're coming with me." There was a clicking sound as Raina cheered and stood up, opening the car. "Hop in." She told Rachel as she looked around for any extra keys.

"Raina Fox-"

"Found them!"

"Ugh, fine, but I'm only coming with you to make sure you don't get into trouble." Rachel informed her as she walked around the car and got in the passenger's front seat.

"Trouble? Me? I was in trouble as soon as I walked into the garage. Hey Jarvis?"

"Yes Miss Fox?"

"Don't tell Tony anything about this for about another thirty minutes okay?"

"As you wish Miss Fox."

"Let's roll!" Raina shouted as she started the car and shot out of the garage.

Several stories upstairs, the rest of the Avengers and Gwen sat around the bar casually drinking juice and other drinks. It was several minutes later when Gwen suddenly looked up and around the group. "Hey guys? Where's Rain and Rachel?"

"Oh no." Clint sighed, knowing that something had to be going horribly wrong somewhere.

"Only one way to find out. Jarvis, run a search for Rain and Rachel for me." Tony took another sip from his wine glass as he awaited the result.

"I'm sorry to tell you this sir, but I am not allowed to tell you for another forty-five seconds." Jarvis answered.

"Um, what's that supposed to mean?" Steve asked.

"Miss Fox asked that I not inform you of her and Miss Flyte's whereabouts until thirty minutes after their departure."

"That can't be good." Bruce muttered.

"Jarvis-" Tony began.

"Miss Fox has 'borrowed' your Maserati and is currently driving through the country-side." Jarvis told them. Tony pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Rain..." He muttered under his breath.

"Jarvis where exactly are they driving to?" Steve spoke up worriedly.

"They are currently driving on a back road that leads towards a small lake."

"Shit. You don't think she means to-?" Clint began to inquire.

"Jarvis patch me into the Maserati." Tony spoke over Clint.

"This is your captain speaking!" Raina's voice came through.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Natasha shouted.

"Hey Nat! I just thought me and Rae would go for a drive-"

"Just a drive my ass! Slow the fuck down!" Rachel's voice shouted through the car's link to the tower. The group watched scandalized at the map Jarvis pulled up as the small, blinking dot got closer and closer to the body of water.

"Oh my god Rain! Don't you fucking dare!" Rachel started yelling again; the Avengers could hear Raina's response of mad cackling.

"Well, at least she's persistent and keeps up her M.O." Gwen shrugged.

"Persistent?! This is Rain you're talking about, she's near homicidal!" Natasha brought up, waving her arms in the air.

"If she does try anything, Rachel has her telekinesis." Bruce pointed out in an attempt to calm down Natasha.

"I can still hear you guys." Raina's voice broke through the bickering.

"Rain tree!" Rachel screamed.

"Oops, my bad."

"Rain just stop the car and we'll come get you." Steve told the young woman as he watched the dot get yet closer and closer to the water.

"Do what he says Rain!" Rachel snapped. Natasha turned and started to run out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Clint yelled after her.

"To the jet!" She screamed as she rounded the corner. Clint rolled his eyes and followed behind her.

"Jarvis, get my suit ready." Tony told the AI as he, too, left the room. Without another word, the rest of the group ran after Natasha and Clint, going to the jet.

"Rachel are you two still okay?" Steve asked once they were on the jet.

"If by okay you mean Rain has not wrecked us yet, then yes."

"She's still heading towards the water, about five minutes away." Tony said from within his suit as he flew beside the Quinjet.

"We'll be there in six." Natasha stated from the pilot seat.

"I really, really like this car." Raina laughed.

"Oh my God, " Rachel gasped suddenly, "Rain you wouldn't dare!"

"Rachel what is it?" Steve asked worriedly.

"There's a lake! Dammit Rain! No!" Rachel screamed.

"Hold on Rae, we're almost there!" Gwen reassured her friend as she herself tried to keep calm, watching the dot of the car get even closer to the water.

"Rain!" Rachel started screaming just before the line went dead, the dot that signified as the car going into the lake.

"Natasha, Clint, land this thing now!" Steve ordered. The group braced themselves as the Quinjet landed, and ran out towards the lake. As soon as they reached the dock that went out over the lake, they stopped and stared on, scandalized; Tony landing next to them. At the end of the dock was parked Tony's Maserati with Raina and Rachel standing outside leaning against it; they were doubled over laughing

"What the hell you two?!" Natasha screamed at the two.

"Just one last scramble for hilarity before I'm shipped off to Asgard. I thought it went pretty well, no?" Raina explained, catching her breath from laughing.

"Rachel you knew about this?" Steve asked as he went over to her.

"At first I tried to talk her out of stealing one of Tony's car but then she told me her plan and well, I thought I would let her have one more fun prank." Rachel admitted, wrapping her arms around Steve to comfort him.

"Yeah and now that you two have had your fun let's get my car back to the tower and get you off to Asgard and away from my stuff." Tony pointed to Raina.

"If you say so." Raina shrugged before jumping back into the car and backing off of the dock, swiftly turning and heading back into the city. Thankfully, everyone had quick reflexes as they jumped away from Raina's path, shouted random obscenities as they did, before getting run over. Rachel had moved Steve and her off of the dock and onto the lake shore as soon as she saw Raina begin to move.

"Well, there goes my ride, can I hitch one form you guys?" Rachel kidded. Gwen placed a hand onto her face, muttering something about insane people. Steve wrapped an arm around Rachel, pulling her closely to his side.

"Do you only act this crazy around her?"

"What can I say, she's influential." Rachel shrugged. "Well guys, let's get back to the tower before she does." Muttering agreements, everyone headed back to the jet; Tony blasting off in his suit.

"I feel sorry for Asgard." Clint joked as they were flying back.

"At least up there are gods to deal with her madness." Gwen noted.

"Yes but then again, Loki's there too so it's twice as bad." Tony added, flying next to the jet.

"Ugh, as long as they keep the pranks up there and not here." Rachel attempted to look on the bright side as always.

"Jeez you guys are slow. Well, I guess I'll go play in Tony's lab while I wait for you slow people." Raina's voice rang through the jet.

"Don't you dare Rain!" Tony yelled.

"I'm so not going to miss this." Rachel muttered as she placed a hand onto her face.

"Ehehehe!" Raina's laughing filled the jet as everyone groaned.

As the time for Raina's departure from Asgard grew nearer, tension and anxiety began to circulate throughout the group, however, no one as much as Rain and Rachel. The pair had become inseparable, not moving further than five inches from the other. Even Raina had started to become more somber after her last prank. Eventually, it came time for the group to travel to the pre-arranged meeting spot, for all of the Avengers, Gwen, Rachel and Pepper wanted to be there to say goodbye to Raina.

"It's kinda poetic that we've got to come here. Ending things from the place we started in a way," Raina said in the silence as they traveled to their destination.

"Now you decide to remember symbolism?"

"Now's as good a time as any," Raina said as they drove on.

"Are you going to ride back with Steve," Raina asked after a moment.

Rachel looked at Raina incredulously, "Really? You think I'm going to ride on a motorcycle? After Michael?"

"Oh yeah," Rain said, looking down, "I forgot."

"So did Steve," Rachel said, thinking of how she, rather harshly, reminded Steve of Michael's death when he mentioned his preferred method of travel.

"He's riding with Tony anyway," Bruce said from the driver's seat.

"Really?" Rachel asked.

"Yep."

"Oh," Rae responded, feeling guilty, assuming that he was taking the car because she had yelled at him.

The rest of the drive was relatively silent, only broken by the occasional comment on the scenery. Even with Bruce driving the speed limit and the group seeing Tony's car fly past them, Bruce managed to get them to the location first.

"That's impressive," Gwen commented to Bruce after she got out of the car.

"Yeah," Raina said, "I totally thought Tony would already be here by now." Bruce turned and smiled at them, his happiness deflated with one glance at Rachel, whose face was ashen and stony as she stood next to Raina.

"It's still weird to be here," Rain said with a more sober attitude, "I'm standing where the walkway should be."

Rachel finally cracked a smile after she said, "Well, maybe Loki can bring the house over here."

"Ugh, we left our computers on and not charging."

"Oh God, why would you remind me?"

"They're dead now."

"With an unsaved word document left open on it."

"It has auto-recovery Rae, you'll be fine."

"You act as though you're going back," Clint said as he and Natasha walked up to them.

"Eh, you never know."

"Especially with Rain."

"Fair enough," Bruce chuckled.

"What took you so long?" Gwen asked Tony, who was just getting out of his vehicle, Steve and Pepper already having exited, looking wide-eyed and pale.

"I took the scenic route."

"At about twice the legal speed limit," Pepper supplied, causing them all to chuckle.

"Are you okay?" Rachel asked Steve as he walked over to her.

"I'm pretty sure I almost died a few times," Steve replied as he wrapped his arm around her, causing her to laugh.

"Steve, I'm sure in this reality it would take about the force of a ton of bricks to even come close," Rae smiled up at him.

"So where is Rock of Ages? He's late," Tony said to the group.

"Because I'm sure they're excellent at keeping track of time," Rachel said sarcastically.

"What with them being immortal and everything, time must be a huge concern for them," Gwen finished.

Though more than one person was thinking it, Tony was the one who said, "You're not suddenly planning on doing pranks are you? Because you're already finishing Rae's sentences."

Rachel rolled her eyes while feeling her stomach clench at Tony's words, "She did that before," she said nonchalantly. Raina glanced over at her friend, once again starting to rethink her decision when suddenly there was a flash of light and they all turned and saw Loki standing in front of them.

"Well you're massively late," Tony said as Raina and Rachel's hearts started stuttering painfully.

"I was momentarily detained," Loki snidely replied, not wanting to admit that it had taken him longer than he thought it would to finish the teleportation spell.

"Longer than a moment," Clint said.

Loki ignored Clint's jab, instead turning to Raina, and watching with both concern and amusement as Rachel, seemingly unaware, clamped her hand around Raina's wrist.

"We must leave soon," Loki said gently, more to Rachel than anyone else. It was then that it hit the Avengers that, after all they had been through, they were still going to end up losing Raina and they all turned to look at her, the crazy kid that terrorized them on and off for a few weeks over a year ago, the one that had helped them to forget they had been in the wrong reality with nothing that made them who they were here. Though they had known from the second they had found Loki in the other reality again that Raina moving up to Asgard, Loki's words made them realise that Raina was really about to leave them, and they all realised that now they had to say goodbye.

Gwen wrapped her arm around Raina and said, "I'm going to miss you Rain." Raina wrapped an arm around Gwen, "Don't have too much fun without me, okay?"

"I wouldn't dream of it," Gwen smiled, moving to the other side of Rain as Bruce gave her a hug and told her to be careful and not to raise too much hell in Asgard.

Natasha and Clint came up to Rain next, both hugging Raina briefly and assuring her that they would miss her and her occasionally insufferable presence. Then Tony and Pepper walked up.

Tony gave Raina a tight hug, "Don't forget to come back and visit us, not just Rae."

"I wouldn't forget you guys."

"Yeah, just don't bring Loki," Tony said, causing Raina to giggle and Loki to frown.

Pepper came up and hugged Raina saying, "I wish I had gotten more time to get to know you."

"Wow, you're really pretty up close," Raina said with wide eyes.

"I forgot you had a crush on Pepper," Rachel laughed. Tony's eyes widened and he was torn between joking about a threesome and pulling Pepper far away from Raina.

"Oh, well, thank you," Pepper smiled.

"But she's unavailable for the time being," Tony said as he pulled Pepper to the side and possessively wrapping his arm around her.

Steve stepped from the other side of Rachel and gave Raina a hug as well.

"Take care of her," Rain said as soon as Steve pulled away.

"It's my number one priority," he assured Rain.

"Good."

"Take care of yourself."

"What can go wrong? I'm going to be surrounded by some of the most powerful beings in existence."

"Okay," Steve chuckled, hugging Raina again and kissing her on the forehead, "If you say so."

Finally Raina turned to Rachel, "You know you're going to have to let go of my wrist, right? You've probably already broken-"

Raina was cut off by Rachel letting go of Rain's wrist and tightly, somewhat painfully, hugging her. Raina took a second before she hugged Rachel back just as hard. When they pulled away, Rachel looked down at Raina, feeling bereft, there had been so many things that Rachel had wanted to say to her and she couldn't remember a single one.

"I love you, you were always my best family and I'm going to miss you."

"You're my best family too," Rachel said as her voice cracked, a tear rolling down her face.

"I know," Raina smiled cheekily, trying to hide her sadness. She looked at Rachel and contemplated whether she should ask Rachel to come with her again or just get Loki to kidnap her later. Rachel and Steve both seemed to realise what Raina was going to say next causing Steve to tense up, thinking that he was about to lose Rachel again.

"I love you so much and I'm going to miss you more," Rachel said, jarring Raina's train of thought.

"Because you're the better friend?"

"Because I'm the better friend," Rachel jokingly confirmed as Loki came up and placed a hand on Raina's shoulder.

"Rain," he said softly, knowing the pain that she was going through.

"Loki," Rachel said, all of her emotions suddenly hidden, "If anything bad happens to her I will kill you in the most painful way I know, and trust me, knowing Rain for ten years means that I know some creative ways to kill someone, god or not."

Loki nodded, "Understood."

"Good."

"Can I threaten your boyfriend?"

"Nope."

"Damn," Raina smiled as Loki took her hand. Rae and Rain finally let go of one another and Loki pulled Raina away from the group as Steve took Rae's hand. Once Loki had gotten himself and Raina what he considered a safe distance from the group, he nodded and let everyone wave to them before starting the spell, Raina only looking at Rachel as she disappeared within the light.


	29. Chapter 29

“Hey Rachel,” Steve said, walking into their shared room, “Are you ready?  Everyone’s-” Steve stopped when he saw that Rachel was crying.  When she realised he was in the room, she quickly wiped her tears away, “Sorry.”

 

“Why are you saying sorry sweetheart?” Steve asked as he walked up to her.

 

“For crying.”

 

Steve sighed as he wrapped his arms around Rachel, “It’s your first Christmas without her, you’re allowed to miss your best friend.”

 

“I do.”

 

“I know, but I think we have a big enough surprise for you that you might forget for a minute or two.”

 

“What surprise?” Rachel said, pulling away.

 

“I thought you were an author.”

 

“I am,” Rachel said, confused.

 

“Then you should know the meaning of the word surprise and the fact that I’m not going to tell you,” Steve laughed. 

 

Rachel rolled her eyes, “Okay, give me a minute.”

 

Steve nodded as Rachel headed to the bathroom to redo her makeup and make sure there was no evidence of the fact that she had been crying.  When she walked back out, she looked at Steve, “Okay, lead the way.”

 

Steve beamed as he took her hand and led her towards the living room.  What Rachel saw made her stop at the entrance to the room.  Raina was standing in front of the tree, wearing a dark green shirt and a gold skirt.  She didn’t even notice the rest of the Avengers, Loki, Gwen, Pepper or Jane Foster gathered in the living room.  Gwen and Pepper preemptively put their fingers in their ears right before Rachel started screaming.  The two friends ran forward, meeting in the middle of the room and hugging each other tightly.

 

“When?” Rachel asked when they pulled apart.

 

“Like five minutes ago.”

 

“That’s cheating; I’m the one who surprises you.”

 

“Not this time,” Raina laughed.

“I've missed you Rain.” Rachel said in a more normal tone.

“I missed you too Rae, so freaking much dude.” Raina smiled at the slightly older woman.

“I miss your stupid as hell antics.”

“I miss you yelling at me for my stupid as hell antics.” The two woman burst into laughter. Once their laughter calmed down, Raina spoke again. “Anyways, I do hope the food is ready, I'm freakin' starvin'!”

“Of course you are.” Rachel laughed. The group made their way to the dining room, where a buffet of food awaited them on the large dining table, and immediately seated themselves. Raina and Thor immediate filled their plates and began to eat.

“Jeez kid, you go to Asgard for a couple months and already eat like them. No offense Loki.” Tony joked.

“None taken, idiot.” Loki retorted, muttering under his breath the last bit. Tony heard him and sent Loki a glare, which the god returned with a smirk.

“Ah nmo ah idn't-“ Raina began with her mouth full of food.

“Rain, swallow your food first.” Rachel interrupted.

“My bad, but not really, anyways...I know I didn't say this earlier but Jane,” Raina started again as she turned her attention to Jane that sat two seats down from her on the other side of Thor. 

“I’m so happy to finally meet you!”

“Likewise. Thor's told me so much about you and Rachel.” Jane returned.

“And soon you shall both be sisters!” Thor spoke up proudly. “Am I right brother?” Loki, who had been chewing on a piece of turkey, began to choke at what Thor was insinuating. Raina quickly went to patting his back as she gave Thor an odd look.

“Oh no, we are not having any mini Raina and Loki's anytime soon.” Clint said with a hint of fear in his voice. Raina rolled her eyes.

“We still have much time for that Thor, much time.” Loki answered, only causing Thor to laugh at his brother's timidity on the subject.

“Yeah kid, don't you even dare anytime soon.” Rachel warned her young friend.

“Pft! Ya'll are just afraid 'cus you know you're going to be the one's babysitting.” Raina laughed evilly at all the immediate responses of 'no's and 'hell no's before returning to stuffing her face.

“Just like old times,” Gwen smiled as she took a drink.

“Yep.” Bruce agreed. The meal went on like that, with the group joking and yelling at each other, mainly Raina being the one who was being yelled at. Once everyone was done eating, they headed back into the living room to give out presents. They then spent the rest of the day either playing with their new 'toys', interacting with one another, or finishing off leftovers. Rachel and Raina stayed together for the whole time, laughing and catching up. Hours later, the sun began to set. Everyone was starting to say their goodbyes as Loki announced they had to return to Asgard by a certain time due to arrangements made before hand with Odin to bring them back.

Rachel and Raina were the last to say their goodbyes as they stood in embrace for several moments, silent. Finally, they pulled apart to see that both women were silently beginning to cry.

“Rae...” Raina attempted as she broke the silence.

“I'm gonna miss you kid.” Rachel managed to say. The two stood there, tightly holding onto each other’s hands as if one of them were going to spontaneously float away.

“I'll try to visit more often; you know it's going to be a little more difficult with the Bifrost broken. But I'll try my best. Raina gave the older woman a weak, reassuring smile.

“Rain, it's time.” Loki gently placed his hand onto Raina's shoulder. The two embraced once again before pulling apart. Loki placed his arm around Raina's waist just before a bright, golden light overtook them. Once the light dissipated, those left saw that Loki and Raina had gone.

“I'm going to miss you kid.” Rachel spoke quietly to herself.

  
+~*~+  
  
Amora gained consciousness finally. Opening her eyes, Amora looked around her. She gasped as she realised what realm she had teleported herself to in haste after Loki had tackled the both of them off of the rooftop.  
  
“Enchantress,” a deep voice boomed from within the flames that crackled in front of her. Amora tried to teleport herself elsewhere, but found she could do no such thing. “Long has it been since an Asgardian has stepped foot into my domain and now here you stand.”  
  
“If you think I will release you from your bonds demon-” Amora attempted to sound brave, but her rapidly beating heart betrayed her.  
  
“Release me? No, not yet. You work for me now, Amora the Enchantress!” The voice yelled out as the flames engulfed her. Amora screamed out as her vision darkened and she blacked out.


End file.
